Similarities of War
by DJ White Rice
Summary: It's true what they say, War Never Changes. People will die, people will find new ways to kill each other, new reasons to kill each other, and the next generation will have to pay for it. The world of Remnant is nearing another civil war, but the outside perspective of a few might change that.
1. Chapter 1

**(A/N): Well, here's an idea I've had floating in my head for some time. I'm nowhere near good enough to be called an author but I do enjoy writing these so if this picks up, I'll continue to write. So please leave any comments that will tell me how to write a better story for you.**

Chapter1: We Died

Seven heavily armed soldiers sprinted down a narrow hallway. One was dragging along an unarmed individual dressed in the same uniform as the soldiers, while another was carried by two other soldiers. Along the way the occasional bullet would ricochet off the walls, or glance off one of the soldier's energy shields. Behind them a mob of feral humans gave chase, their emaciated bodies were climbing over each other, trying to reach their prey.

"The control rooms just ahead!" The unarmed man panted while being pull along by his arm. As they got closer the largest solider of the group stopped and spun around while leveling a large mini-gun at the oncoming horde. The mini-gun slowly spun to life and began spitting out an ocean of lead, "COME! AND! GET! SOME!" he bellowed over the whine of the cannon as it reduced them to a red paste. The horde continued to pour through the hall, slipping over the bodies and howling in anger. The shear amount of them began to force the adrenaline fueled soldier to slowly walk backwards to keep his distance.

"Frost!" a man called from the open doorway at the end of the hall. "Get the fuck over here!" Frost then spun around and ran as fast as he could towards his team. One of the soldiers leaned out and fired past him in an attempt to slow the horde. The moment he passed through to safety the man in the doorway rolled something out the door before slamming it shut, rotating the wheel, and locking it in place. The pounding on the door quickly ended when a dull thump was heard on their side of the door. "Good thing you didn't trip." The man by the door said. He slapped the larger man's flak vest a few times before removing a grenade from it and adding to his waist. "I'm still waiting for that 20 credits you owe me." Under his helmet and behind its blast shields, his mouth formed a large grin and let out a hearty laugh. "Here, have another one Sledge." Frost produced another grenade and placed it on his waist. "I'm sure these cost more than 20 credits, keep the change."

On the other side of the room stood a wall covered by monitors, cameras and control panels. Before it the unarmed man and the leader of the group began to look over the work station. "Is this the console Strauss? Can you do it from here!?" in his peripheral vision he noticed that Strauss stood there fidgeting and quietly mumbling. "Strauss! Strauss! Stay with me. You need to rig this place to blow." He placed both hands on his shoulders and shook him back to reality. The man gave a nod of affirmation and began to fiddle with the controls. His hands swiftly slid across the board, twisting dials, pressing buttons and typing numbers. "Don't worry Sergeant Banks. This will only take a moment." His voice sounded professional, calm and mechanical. Sergeant Banks gave a nod and looked around to find his wounded man. He found him laid out on a table on the left side of the room with the last three surrounding it. The tallest of the three leaned against a wall and watched as the other two operated on him, trying to stop the bleeding. The shorter of the two, the team's medic wore white armor with a large red cross painted across her back. Her hands moved around the man insides, trying to do everything she could. Small spider-like drones would crawl up and down her arms and enter the body to perform more complex surgeries. After a few more minutes had passed, the drones crawled out and returned to a medium sized dome on her back. She removed her hands and shook her head slowly before pulling three syringes from a leg pouch. Her assistant stepped back, bracing himself against the wall and slid down, cradling his head. The medic started injecting the syringes and mumbling after each one. "Morphine." The first fell to the floor. "Antibiotics." The second fell. "Bio-gel." The final syringe hit the ground and she began to cover the wound. Once she was done she braced herself on the table, her head dropped and left out a sigh. She lifted her head a turned around to inform the sergeant.

"Oh, there you are." The medic's visor lit up at each syllable as the synthetic female voice spoke. She took him by the arm and pulled him away from the table. "Auburn, Wade. How's Kosmoski doing?" he whispered.

"He's stable, for now." A more human female voice spoke. This time the visor stayed black. "Auburn and I did everything we could but…" her voice trailed off as she looked over at him. "His organs are shredded, he's lost blood, and I can't fix that much damage without causing more damage." The synthetic voice spoke this time. "Unless we get him to real doctor, he's not going to make it." Banks nodded and let her get back to work. Looking around he saw that the room they were in had reinforced walls, no windows, and only one door.

"Hmm." Banks began to think of a plan. " _Kosmoski's down, and there's an army on the other side of the door. Maybe Frost and Sledge can take….._ " Suddenly the lights in the room dimmed and flickered before the warning sirens started blaring.

"Warning, core meltdown imminent. Please exit the facility in an orderly manner." The stock message kept repeating. A solid clunk came from the door as steel rods locked the door into place. "Strauss! What the fuck! Get that door open!" Banks yelled. Strauss leaned over and pulled a panel off the wall next to the door. "Don't worry sergeant Banks. The door will be AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Strauss screamed in pain as his body convulsed from the amount of electricity flowing through him. His smoking, charred body dropped to the floor after a few seconds. The smell of burning flesh filled the room as it passed through their respiratory filters. Resisting the urge to vomit the Wade's assistant manage to choke out, "Fuck, commands going to be pissed."

"No shit Pitt." Sledge said while tapping the electrocuted technician with his boot. The room went quiet save for the alarm and the voice repeating its message. The silence ended when Pitt pointed at one of the monitors and stuttered, "Sergeant Banks! There's a timer now!" They all turned around and the air filled with dread as a timer counted down. 45, 44, 43….. The timer continued, getting closer to their eventually doom.

Frost threw his hands up in the air, "Well, it's been fun guys. I think we're pretty fucked so if there's anything you want to say before we die I suggest we say it now. I'll go first, Ortiz you're a massive bitch and I will always be better than you." The smile under his helmet turned to shock as the silent figure walked over and threw him over her shoulder. She leaned over and slapped his mask a few times before returning to her spot. The room erupted into laughter before being cut short as reality set in once again.

"Well, Frost is right. We're done for so I just wanted to say before we die, it's been an honor to fight alongside you all. See you all on the other side." He gave a thumbs up as the timer hit zero. The room shook as the reactor began to meltdown and radiation passed through the room. Then everything faded to black.


	2. Chapter 2

**(A/N): Well, here's chapter 2. So far every time I reread the chapter I write, it doesn't sound too bad. Fortunately my inbox also has yet to turn into a proverbial lynch mob so I must be doing something right. So like before if you see something I should fix or something I could do better please leave a review telling me. I can only get better with people telling me what I can improve on. I also forgot to leave that disclaimer thing in the last chapter so, I don't own anything to do with RWBY, the show, or its characters. Just the fake universe I made for story writing.**

Chapter 2: We Lived

Darkness greeted Private Adrian Pitt as he regained consciousness. " _Ugh, my head_." He thought as he sat up, cracking his neck to get the blood flowing again. Reality suddenly kicked in as he began to remember what had just happened. Franticly he began looking around the room, calling for his friends. "Sergeant Banks? Sergeant Ortiz? Frost?" His voice became increasingly panicked as he said each name. Pitt brought his hands before him when a blinding light appeared ahead of him. "Am... I going to heaven?" he asked hesitantly, reaching towards it.

"Pitt, calm the fuck down. You're not going to heaven." A voice said. Pitt's visor polarized and adjusted to allow Pitt to see who was before him. A hand reached out and pulled him to his feet. then he could finally see who it has.

"Oh god. If you here Sledge, then, I MUST BE IN HELL!" Pitt cried as he grabbed his friend by the shoulders.

"Yeah, Pitt's fine!" he said calmly, brushing the younger man's hands off his shoulders. Sledge reached over and pressed a button on the left side of Pitt's helmet, activating his flashlight. Looking around Pitt could see what was happening. Sgt. Ortiz stood in the corner cycling her armor's systems. Sgt. Banks and Pvt. Wade stood over the bodies of Kosmoski and Strauss, trying to prepare them to be burned.

"huurk!" quickly looking in the corner next to the door Cpl. Frost was doubled over, bracing himself with one hand on the wall. "So what, just happened?" he stumbled backwards and wiped the left over vomit with his sleeve.

"No idea, I'm not getting any signal from the satellites." Wade's helmet lit up as Auburn spoke. "And I can smell that from here."

"So what do you think happened?" Sgt. Banks asked, tapping the Tactical Pad on his wrist. All systems lit up indicating they were functioning, save for the GPS, map overlays and pathfinder functions.

"Well seeing how we're all still here and not piles of ash on the floor, it's safe to say this room was designed to protect everyone in it in case of a meltdown. That might also be why we can't get any signal." Auburn and Wade began to inspect the door. A spider drone crawled and attached itself to the door as Wade began tapping it at several points, small lights blinked from the drone while it was listening to the vibrations. "Odd. Hey Banks, wanna let Frost burn the door?" Corporal Frost's head perked up when he heard he might get to blow something up.

"Wouldn't the radiation kill us if we open that door?"

"Trust me, I'm fairly certain there's no radiation on the other side." The artificial voice sounded confident as her host took a step back. Sgt. Banks motioned for Cpl. Frost to burn the door. Frost happily walked over to the door and produced a can from one of the pouches on his pack. He shook the can a few times and began to trace the outline of the door before drawing a smile with whatever was left in the can. He placed a detonating chip into the foam and ushered everyone to a corner with him between them and the door.

"Fire in the hole!" he happily yelled, pressing the detonator. A bright blinding light filled the room, all of it radiating from the door as the foam reduced it to molten metal. Seconds passed as the light dimmed, a new light took its place filling the room. The group shouldered their weapons, approaching the door cautiously ready to face whatever was on the other side. None of them expected to see what was before them. Upon peering out, the control room was now in the middle of a field, instead of metal walls and bodies, they saw clear blue skies and flourishing forests.

Both things they hadn't seen for a long time.

The first to exit the room was Private David Sledge, rifle at the ready he scanned the area while stepping away from their shelter. A few yards away he slowed to a stop, his eyes darting in every direction trying to find anything amiss. Once he was sure the area they stood was relatively safe, he motioned for the rest to come out. The rest quickly followed, each of them moving to form a semi-cicrle around the room. The last to exit was Sgt. Banks, in his hand were two sets of Identification tags from his fallen teammates. Looking around at this new surroundings, he was unsure about how he should be feeling.

"Ortiz, scout the area, report anything out of the ordinary." He commanded, the silent equal gave a nod before the gray cloak covering her flickered and she vanished, off to find anything that could tell them where they were. "Wade, Auburn, give me a perimeter. I want to know if anything come within 75 meters of us."

"Anything specific I should be looking for?" Auburn spoke for the two, mask light blinking as a dozen drone flew off to patrol around. Her human host still had her weapon aimed at the forest.

"Hell, anything would be good at this point. Hopefully people that won't shoot us." Banks sighed. "The manual doesn't really tell us what to do if you survive a proton reactor melting down and wake up somewhere else."

"We have a manual?"

"Yes Pitt, we were all issued manuals. Don't tell me you forgot yours on the ship did you? It tells you what to do in almost any situation!" Pvt. Sledge sarcastically led the rookie soldier on for a few minutes. Claiming outlandish things from ways to filter water from sewage to ways to turn a rotting animal carcass into eatable food.

"Here you go boss." Frost handed over four small blocks of C-4 and a detonator. "Standard procedure is a bitch ain't it?" If one could see under his mask, a smile would cover his face.

Taking the blocks, Banks threw them into the room, one for each corner. He motioned for his team to move a safe distance away before pressing the detonator. _*BOOM*_ The room was nothing more than a smoking hole and leftover debris. The bodies were most likely turned to ash, or at least no long usable by the enemy.

" _War sure is hell when you can't even send the bodies home."_ His thoughts ended when an ominous howl echoed through the forest. The howl was joined by several others before abruptly ending.

"What was…?" He was cut off by the radio.

"Banks, the forest just came to life. Something is heading towards you from all directions." Sgt. Ortiz calmly spoke she began telling everything she could from her location. "I can't see what they are or how many. Possibly wildlife, they don't look human when I get a glimpse through the trees."

"Where are you?" a green diamond appeared on his HUD indicating she was on the edge of a cliff behind them. "Okay guys, form up!" He spun a cicrle with his finger. "Sgt. Ortiz is on the ridge, she's going to be our warning system and her location will be 6'o clock! She'll tell us where to shoot, Auburn pull all those drones back and give us some extra guns."

"On it."

"First wave 3'o clock." Ortiz fired a shot through the forest canopy, whatever was heading for them let out a howl in anger. The five leveled their weapons at the forest ready for whatever was coming. Frost's mini-gun was already spinning to life as the first wave of creatures bolted from the forest.

"OPEN FIRE!" Banks had to yell over the symphony of gunfire as they didn't even wait for the order.

"11'o clock." Ortiz's calm operator like voice warned.

"It's going to be a long day." Banks muttered before tapping Pitt on the shoulder and motioning him to help.

The siege had gone on for over 20 minutes before the unknown creatures started to thin out. As they fought the team started to notice that the creatures looked like wolves, well whatever was left appeared to be wolves. It took them awhile before they noticed the bodies started to fade away, leading them to speculate that the wolves would die and simply respawn nearby. Fortunately this hypothesis started to prove false as the waves slowed and thinned.

"FUCK!" Frost yelled in anger. He gently tossed his prized baby to the ground. The mini-gun had overheated, forcing him to drop to his knee and draw his side arm. The large man awkwardly held the tiny weapon as he fired into the final charging wolf. He fired the first shot into it shoulder causing it to jerk to the side in pain. The second shot went through the unprotected side of its skull, ending its charge. He let out a long tired sigh before lifting his baby, cradling it.

"Well, that was fun." Sledge was now stretching his legs. He and the rest of the team had been on one knee for most of the fight. "I'm surprised Pitt held up that well. I was sure he would've pissed himself a few times."

Pitt has on his back panting, trying process what had happened. "That, was intense." He managed to breathe out. "Not gonna lie though, that was fun." He chuckled as Sedge lifted him to his feet.

"Is everyone alive?" Banks called out. Even though his HUD showed them all to be in the green he wanted to be sure. Before he could get confirmation Ortiz spoke over the radio.

"Sgt. Banks, come to me, we have guests."

"How many? Are they friendly?" he turned to the cliff, he could still see his sniper looking down at them.

"Four, not sure." She said. "They appear to be children, and they're armed."

 **(A/N): to whoever was under the guest review thing who asked:**

" _ **Soooo, you gonna chuck some people into a Cold War kind of thing. (Or something)"**_

 **If you see the tension between the White Fang and everyone else as a Cold War then yes. The soldiers have entered a Cold War.**


	3. Chapter 3

**(A/N): Happy belated thanksgiving! To be honest this didn't write out as well as I had imagined. I had to scrap and rewrite most of this and it still sounds pretty bad. I'm sure that after a few more chapters a better idea will pop up that I can't use. Anyways, I know this is starting slow but I kind of have to at least let them settle in and learn a little about the world the entered, but hopefully something will happen after a couple of chapters. As stated before please leave comments and reviews, I need them to improve. I don't own RWBY, just the characters in the alternate storyline I created.**

Chapter 3: We went to School

The four children hid in the brush and shadows of the tree line. Ahead of them stood a figure, dressed in a uniform they did not recognize. The figure held its hand to the side of it while and pacing up and down the cliffs edge before stopping in its original position.

"So why do you think he's all the way out here?" the blonde asked turning to his friends. He stood behind one of the large trees, trying to remain hidden.

"Maybe we should go and ask. Oh, maybe he knows where all the shooting came from." The orange haired girl happily asked, trying to step from their hiding place.

"Nora, I don't think that's a good idea." Her black haired friend pulled her back, preventing her from giving them away. "First off, we don't know who he is. Second we…"

"He's gone." The redhead cut him off. She emerged from the brush and began scanning the cliff edge. The mystery figure had vanished in the time she had blinked.

"What do you mean Pyrrha? He was just here a second ago." The blonde asked, his face showed a worried expression. He emerged from their hiding place with the other two following shortly after. He got on all four and crawled to the cliff edge and peered over, thinking perhaps the man had jump. Once he saw that the ground below saw body free he got up and went back to his friends.

"Well, he didn't jump." He stated.

"Maybe he could turn invisible." Pyrrha held her hand to her chin. Puzzled how the man had vanished without anyone noticing.

"That would be correct." The figure stood behind the group.

 **(Path up the cliff.)**

"Did you guys hear that?" Sledge asked. "Sounded like a scream."

"I heard it to." Frost held his hand up. "I didn't think Ortiz could scream like that."

"Nah, I don't think that was her, but I think we should get moving. Could be one of those guest she mentioned." Banks motioned them to move faster.

 **(Back on the cliff.)**

The blonde stood doubled over, the long, surprisingly high pitch scream had left him winded. When he finally lifted his head, his face was red from embarrassment.

"Who are you?" he finally asked once he had regain his composure.

"Sergeant Natasha Ortiz." She stood at attention giving, a salute before returning to a relaxed pose. "Sergeant Banks will be here momentarily. He would like to speak with you."

"Um, okay?" the blonde scratched the back of his head. "So, my names Jaune, and these are my teammates. This is Pyrrha, Ren and Nora." The only response he received was a short nod. The soldier just stood there like a statue, waiting for the others. Jaune looked to each of his teammates unsure what to do. Several awkward moments passed as they stood around in relative silence. Jaune would occasionally ask a simple question, trying to create a conversation with her, only to be ignored.

"Hey Ortiz!" The group turned to see the rest of the soldiers arrive. The largest one was speaking, he held what looked like a large cannon on his shoulder. "Next time pick a place to shoot from where we don't have to climb so much. All this shit I'm carrying isn't light you know."

"Play nice you two." The one leading the group continued toward them while rest stopped. "Are these our new friends?"

"Yes." Was Ortiz's response.

"Well then." The man's voice sounded cheery. His hands reaching to the base of his helmet, giving it a slight twist and removing it. "I am Sergeant Roland Banks." He held his hand out waiting to shake the younger man's hand. "It's nice to meet you."

Jaune hesitantly took his hand and shook it. "My name's Jaune, these are my friends and Pyrrha, Ren and Nora. It's nice to meet you to." He let hands rest back at his side. "So uh, what are you guys doing out here?"

"Sorry Jaune, but I'm afraid I can't talk about it." He shook his head apologetically. "On a different note, could you tell us where we're at? We got lost somewhere along the way. We need to report back and our radios aren't working correctly. "

"Oh it's okay, if it was top secret and you told us, you probably would have to kill all witnesses right?" He let out a nervous chuckle while Sgt. Banks only smiled. "You're not going to kill us, are you?"

"Wouldn't think of it, now where are we again?"

"Oh um, we're in Emerald Forest, just outside of Vale." Jaune pointed over his shoulder in to general direction they had just came from. "If you guys want you can catch a ride with us, we were on our way back."

"Thank you Jaune. Please lead the way."

As the left a message appeared on his tac-pad from Auburn. Opening it, it read " _I have no idea where we are, Vale isn't one of our cities."_

" _Great."_ he typed back _. "Well, they're human so I think we're safe for now."_

Traveling through the forest the four teens appeared at else while the others were on edge the whole time, never taking their fingers off the triggers or looking away from the trees. Eventually they found their way back to the ship and boarded. During the flight the solders admired the view the whole way. Below them stood a forest that covered the ground for miles, all of which appeared untouched by mankind. Off in the distance they could see the silhouette of a city approaching, within the hour they would be landing.

Once the ship had landed, Jaune led them in the direction of the school but stopped when he saw three people walking to them. The one leading was a blonde lady, dressed in business-like attire, the two men that followed dressed very differently however. The shorter of the two wore a red uniform commonly worn by a doorman, while the taller one looked disheveled, dressing casually compared to the other two.

"Jaune, you and your team are to return to your room for the time being." Her voice came out sharp and carried a hint of irritation. "And you are not to speak of this to anyone. Understand?"

"Yes ma'am." He stammered, the four of them quickly left leaving the soldiers and the faculty alone.

"Who is in charge?" her arms crossed across her chest as she adjusted her glasses.

"That would be me ma'am. Sergeant Roland Banks." The stepped forward and extended his hand.

"Mister Banks would you follow me." She said without returning the gesture. "The rest of your team is to follow professor Port and professor Oobleck to the hanger for now."

"Very well, lead the way." His decision was received with hesitant and worried remarks from his team.

"Are you sure boss?" Auburn whispered.

"Yeah we don't know them or where we are." Sledge said while placing his hand on his superior's shoulder, pulling him back.

"Don't worry, they're human so that's a start and I'm sure that if anything were to happen you can find me. Plus we already died once, what's the worst that can happen."

With that the team split into two with their leader going one direction while the rest went in another.


	4. Chapter 4

**(A/N): Here's the next chapter. Sorry it took longer than expected, hopefully its keeping you all entertained. As stated before I don't own RWBY and please leave a review if you find anything wrong with it.**

Chapter 4: New Jobs

Two men stood silently and watched the video again, intrigued by the mystery soldiers' display. The five soldiers who remained in the clearing had managed to expertly hold off multiple waves of Grimm without assistance, impressed them and yet caused them to worry. At first the soldiers appeared to have trouble holding the wolves back but eventually settled into a pattern, systematically stopping a wave midway through the clearing before turning to face another wave before it emerged from the forest.

"So, who are they?" One of them finally asked, leaning on the table and rubbing with his chin in his gloved hand. His face formed a scowl, not from displeasure but from the uncertainty he felt towards the group.

"I have the faintest idea James." The other one said as he drank from his mug. He leaned back in his chair as he continued to watch the video. Once the video had ended, he spun his chair around to face the door and adjusted his small glasses. "But they will be here momentarily."

The door opened and the blonde escort entered with one of the soldiers in tow. As they entered she stepped to the side and gestured for him to enter. Once he passed her she shut the door behind him and produced a pad that resembled his tac-pad. "This is Sergeant Roland Banks." She said bluntly, typing on the pad and walking to the two men ahead of him. "He is the one in charge of his team."

"Thank you Glynda. Please Mr. Banks, have a seat." The gray haired man gave a warm smile as he gestured to the seat in front of his desk. "Now I'm sure you have many questions, as do we." He took a sip from his cup. "But let us start with introductions shall we? I am Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon academy." He directed his hand towards the blonde. "This is my assistant, Glynda Goodwitch." The blonde gave a slight nod before returning to the pad. "And this is General…."

"Sir, Sergeant Roland Banks sir. I was not aware that you were an officer." Banks interrupted Ozpin mid-sentence, standing at attention giving a brisk salute.

"At ease Sergeant." Ironwood smiled a little upon learning that Banks was possibly military and not a new band of mercenaries. Sgt. Banks removed his helmet exposing his messy black hair, allowing the superior offer to see who he was speaking to. He sat back down and let his helmet rest under his seat.

"Yes as I was saying, this is General James Ironwood. He is in charge of the Atlesian military." Ozpin leaned forward in his seat and rested his elbows on the desk, fingers crossed. "Now, why were you and your men in the forest?"

Banks sat there, drumming his fingers across his thigh, thinking. _"Okay, these three are human. Everyone I've seen so far is human. But who the hell are the Atlesian?"_ his brow furrowed as he contemplated how to answer.

"Before I answer, where are we?" he asked.

"Beacon Academy." The grey haired headmaster replied.

"Okay, what planet?" Banks said with a raised eyebrow.

"Remnant. Why would you ask such a question?" The general replied raising his own brow in confusion.

Banks sighed. "Okay when did we colonize another planet?"

"Excuse me? What do you mean 'colonize' another planet?" the blonde was now too confused by his questions.

"Okay?" banks held his head in defeat. "Are you guys human?"

"That's a very odd question." Ozpin said with a puzzled expression. "But yes we are indeed human."

Banks gave a sigh of, moderate, relief once he heard that they were human. He began to press a series of buttons on his wrist tac-pad. "The fact that you're human is the best I can go with." A hint of concern could be heard in his voice. "Okay this going to sound crazy but my team and I are not from here. A better way to put it, we might be from a different universe or even a different reality. I'm not sure."

"What you're saying isn't making any sense. What do you mean, 'from another universe'?" the assistant asked, her confusion turning slowly to irritation at the irrational answer.

"I mean we're possibly not supposed to be here to begin with. I'm not really sure how to explain it." A muffle 'ding' came from his thigh and he produced a smaller data pad. Pressing one of the hard light buttons a hologram of the reactor they were in came up and filled the space between all of them. "Before we came here, we were instructed to destroy this proton reactor. Once we made it to the control room the doors sealed and the reactor finally blew up with us in it." He pressed the hologram, bringing up the area where the control room was located. "Once we woke up and opened the door to the room we found ourselves in the forest and eventually under attack by those wolves."

"Are telling us that the explosion sent you here?" The headmaster asked with a surprisingly calm tone.

"That's the only possible reason I can't give. Otherwise I have no idea."

"Can you tell us why where you ordered to destroy this reactor?" Ironwood asked while inspecting the hologram.

"This reactor supplied power to a series of planetary defenses surrounding three neighboring factory planets. Once the defenses were down we would be able to attack the factories with reduced casualties. Or at least that was to be expected. I'm not sure how it turned out since I'm here and not there."

"So there is a war going on where you're from?" the blonde assistant asked no longer typing.

"Yes and for at least 300 years I think." Banks said closing the hologram.

"300 years?! You can't be serious? You can't possibly expect us to believe that?" ironwood said shocked.

"Unfortunately its true." Banks began pressing more buttons on his pad. "But if you want a history lesson Auburn would be the one to talk to, she should have a record of most of it."

"Very well. It will be, interesting to hear about your history. What about you and your teams training?" Ironwood held his arms behind his back regaining his composure. Once the subject had changed to training, as he was confident his own military would be superior to the newcomers.

"As expected." Banks pressed a single button and handed over the data pad. "This is a list of my current team and their service records. Sergeant Ortiz and I are both Operators, the equivalent of a Special Forces unit if you have any. The rest of my team are regular infantry, all handpicked by me."

"The amount of training you have, even your 'regular infantry' assigned to you is extensive. Has your war really impacted your society this much?" Ironwood asked in astonishment. Sgt. Banks' training alone made his own Special Forces look like training dummies.

"It has affected us enough to force our children to start conditioning around age 8." The words exited Banks' mouth casually, as if it was common knowledge and widely accepted. The room grew quite as the three tried to process what they had just heard. In his world, war is all they know, from the day they're born to the day they die.

Trying to push this thought out of his head for the moment, Ozpin finally asked the important question he'd wanted to ask. "What do you plan to do now?"

"To be honest, I was going to cross that proverbial 'bridge' when I got to it. Seeing how we technically died in combat, it would be difficult to explain what happened to my superiors. But if you happened to have a free space ship, we will gladly be on our way." Banks said with a shrug. "But I'm going to assume you don't have any. So, I was thinking that we could settle down and open up a farm somewhere. If I remember correctly, Pitt was raised on a farm so he should have an idea on how to grow crops."

"You assumed correctly Mr. Banks." Opzin smiled. "Fortunately I have a proposition for you. Before your arrival, James and I were discussing an important matter. I would like it if you and your team would act as security for Beacon." He took another sip and prepared for what came next.

"You can't possibly be serious!?" ironwood objected, slamming both hands on the desk in protest.

"Oh but I am, I asked for a small security detail but you kept rejecting my request unless I allowed them to report to you and you alone. Plus wouldn't it be better for us to keep an eye on our new friends than let them wander about Vale?"

"Okay, I'm going to ignore whatever problem you two are having right now and ask, **IF** I choose to accept, what would our job be exactly?"

"You would provide basic security around campus, assisting with class occasionally, and escort students when they head into the forest for lessons." Glynda spoke professionally as she listed a few responsibilities.

"Well, seeing how we really have no other choice, I guess we get to be school cops now." Banks said with a smirk, accepting the offer knowing he had no other reasonable options.

"Splendid." Ozpin stood up. "Shall we go meet the rest?" Ozpin gesturing to the door.

As the four of them approached the hanger they could hear muffled shouts from within. Inside the four saw the occupants surrounding a foldable table with Frost locked in an arm wrestling match with the short grey haired man. They all cheered for their preferred contestant, save for Ortiz who silently watched. With a solid thud, Frost had one.

"Hell yeah who's next? I'm on a role tonight!" he cheered with his arms over his head.

"Good to see everyone getting along." Banks smiled, happy to see his team enjoying themselves. "Gather around, I've got some good news and bad news. Before I get to that I want to introduce our hosts, this is Professor Ozpin, headmaster of this school, Beacon Academy. His assistant Glynda Goodwitch and General…." His team all stood at attention, saluting. "At ease, this is General James Ironwood. Head of the Atlesian military."

"Atlesian…. Military?" Auburn asked quietly, Ericka's head tilting slightly allowing Banks to see the computerized human's confusion.

"Yes Atlesian. It'll make little more sense in a second, I hope. As I said before I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we are in fact not dead, the bad news is that we are probably in a different reality or universe. So until we can figure out whether or not we can go back, we will be working for Professor Ozpin as security for his school."

"So you're saying we managed to travel across the galaxy without a warp drive?" Pitt asked raising his hand as if he was in school.

"In a way, yes." Banks sighed.

"Cool."

"Anyways, as I said before we will be working here for now until I can figure something out." Pinching the bridge of his nose, Banks handed the spotlight to their new boss so that he may speak.

"Yes, and we will introduce you to the students and staff tomorrow afternoon. We will also do our best to give you a detailed history lesson but that will be later this week. For now I'm sorry to say you will have to stay in the hanger until we can set aside a proper living space for you."Ozpin stated.

"Don't worry." Frost said proudly. "We've slept in worse conditions, this is like a five-star hotel for us."

"Yes well, I look forward to working with you. Have a pleasant evening." Ozpin turned and headed towards the door but stopped halfway out. "And do keep this a secret for now."

"Understood." Banks said with a nod as their hosts left the hanger.

 **(Once in Ozpin's office.)**

"Are you sure we can trust them?" Goodwitch asked trailing slightly behind the two still reading over there files given.

"Fairly sure." Ozpin said.

"You can't seriously believe tis is a good idea." Ironwood said worriedly. "We know nothing about them."

"If I recall correctly James, we couldn't come to an agreement, I simply found a solution." Ozpin replied. A smile crept across his face. "Plus when have I ever been wrong when judging a person's character?"

"That's what scares me. Very well. Just," he stopped mid-sentence. "Just keep me informed."


	5. Chapter 5

**(A/N): Nothing today. Fight scenes are hard.**

Chapter 5: Showing Off

"Good afternoon students." Standing before the crowd of students, Banks spoke with professional manner. "My name is Roland Banks and I am part of a small privately owned security company that operates outside of the kingdoms. Due to recent events and some concerns with the school's safety, your headmaster felt it was necessary to hire my team for additional security." Hushed whispers and mummers spread throughout the crowd as he spoke, unfortunately they were all too quiet to hear otherwise he would've tried to answer them.

"Do not worry students, all we are here to do is patrol the campus grounds and make sure nothing is amiss, we will do our best not to interrupt any of your daily activities unless necessary or we are asked to. So before I hand you back over, are there any questions?" He asked and dozens of hands shot up. Looking around he noticed a familiar group of faces.

"Yes you." He said pointing to the orange haired girl from before. "Nora, right?"

"Yay you remembered! I was wondering if you could..."

"Tell you why we were in the forest yesterday?" he interrupted her.

"How'd you know?"

"Gut feeling." A small smile inched across his face. "Well, yesterday we were dropped into the forest to show Ozpin what our company's security teams are capable of and see we meet his standards. Since I'm stand here now, I like to think our display was satisfactory. Next question."

Another round of hands shot up, several more than before. "Let's go with someone in the back. How about you, the gentleman with the fox ears."

"What's with your uniform? It's very different from the military one, and why's 'The legend' written on it?"

"Good question. The company I work for has a research and development section that specializes in defense technology. The uniforms we are wearing are customized prototypes and they want to see how the hold up during daily activities and, if possible, simulated combat scenarios. As for the name, most members who get assigned to this division end up with some kind of nickname over the years. It's usually some kind of inside joke and if the name sticks it ends up on your uniform. Plus it's hard to tell who is who with the helmets. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes it does thank you."

"Your welcome. Okay, who's next." Looking around once again. "How about you." Pointing at a blonde girl near the front.

"The names Yang, so you guys had to prove yourselves to Professor Ozpin to work her right?"

"Yes?" Banks scratched the back of his head, confused by her question.

"And you also have to test your suits while you're here, right?" She was smiling now, ignoring the whispered protest from the three sitting beside her.

"I think I see where this is going." He began to smile as well, realizing the point of her questions. "And I accept."

"Absolutely not!" Glynda objected, irritated at the audacity of the two of them.

"I approve." Ozpin said, nonchalantly overruling his assistant.

"You can't be serious?!" She nearly shouted, trying to remain professional.

"The students may as well see who has been assigned to watch over them, plus I'm interested to see how well they hold against our students. I trust you won't harm them correct?" Ozpin asked, expertly hiding the implied threat in his question.

"Don't worry we won't hurt them beyond what is expected from a normal practice match."

"Fine" Glynda huffed, knowing she wouldn't win the argument.

"How about an hour after this is done?"

"Actually, I'm sure the students would rather see your fight now. Have your friends meet us in the arena." He highlighted the arenas location on his map. "You are all dismissed, if you would like to watch this match head to the arena now. Otherwise enjoy the rest of your Saturday." The amphitheater emptied faster than it had filled as everyone made their way to watch the fight. Ozpin and Glynda left as Banks prepped his team.

Everyone filled the seats of the combat arena, wanting to see how the match would play out. Banks stood with three members of his team on one end while Yang stood with hers. She would occasionally flash a shit-eating grin towards the new security officers before returning to her team's conversation, confident they would win.

"Did you really have to challenge them already?" A girl dressed in black asked indifferently.

"Come on Blake, it'll be fun." Yang said while stretching, trying to get her teammate pumped for the fight. "Look at Ruby, she's excited." Pointing to their red hooded friend who was trying to get a better look of their opponent's weapons. She wore a face that a child make when shown a new magic trick for the first time, mystified yet excited.

"The least you could've done was ask first!" A girl dressed in all white said bitterly.

"Well I knew you'd say no, so I skipped that step and asked." Yang smiling the white girl huffed and crossed her arms waiting for the match to start.

"And that's when I said that's not a hammer, _this_ is a hammer!" Frost began to laugh as if he had heard the funniest joke known to man, while Banks and Sledge stood in silence. "Aw come on that was funny." Still giggling from his joke.

"Yes, it sure was." Sledge didn't even know how to respond to it. "Too bad Pitt and Wade aren't here to enjoy your joke. So, how are we doing this?"

"Do what? Oh yeah the fight, Ortiz your up." She nodded handing over her sniper and climbed onto the stage. "Try not to hurt them too much, I really don't want to get fired on our first day." A shit eating grin spread across his face, already knowing the outcome.

Mummers spread across the crowd as Ortiz entered alone, without a weapon while all four members of Yang's team stood in the arena. The scoreboard lite up as all 5 appeared on it. Yang, Blake, Weiss, and Ruby appeared with a bar showing their aura levels, while Ortiz appeared alone.

"The rest of you guys aren't going to fight?" Yang called out confused. She had hoped she would get to fight them all.

"I'm fairly certain that Ortiz will be more than enough for you." Banks called out waving from the far side.

"But she doesn't have a weapon!" She called back.

"She shouldn't need one! Good luck!" His shit eating grin could be seen from across the arena.

"Is everyone ready?" Glynda asked, still annoyed about this match.

"Ready." Ruby said as they took a fighting stance. Ortiz simply nodded and took a boxer's stance, slightly bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Begin" The match started.

Yang and Ruby made the first move, charging at Ortiz. Yang leapt up and threw a punch from above while Ruby came from the left, attempting to overwhelm her. Yang was shocked when she missed, the force from her attack had cracked the ground. In the next instant Yang's face dug into the floor, Ortiz had sidestepped the punch and avoided Ruby's charge, allowing Ortiz to deliver a roundhouse kick to the back of her head.

"Yang!" Ruby cried as she spun around and sped up, making another attempt to hit her opponent. Ortiz saw this, she planted her foot down before stepping into the swing of the charging girl. Using her shoulder to stonewall Ruby, she grabbed and disarmed the dazed girl, leaving her on the floor. Using the flat end of the scythe, Ortiz used it like a golf club to send Yang out of the arena before imbedding the scythe next to the little reaper, the handle hovered across her waist intending to hold her down.

"Yang has been eliminated due to ring out, Ruby has been eliminated due to an implied fatal injury." The blonde proctor said calmly, their faces greyed out on the screen.

Looking away from the screen, Ortiz cracked her knuckles and neck, preparing for the other two. The two remaining members of team RWBY stood before her, nodding to each other. Blake dashed forward swiping low trying to hit her left thigh. Ortiz stepped over the swipe and brought her heel down on her back only for Blake to dissipate upon impact. Confused she leapt back trying to figure out what happened only to be hit from behind with Weiss darting past. Her shields flared as the impact had enough force to cause her to stumble forwards until a barrage of bullets hit her from the front sent her to the floor.

Looking up she barely managed to see Weiss charge again, attempting to impale her. Instinct took over as she rolled to the side and back flipped to avoid the follow up from her partner. As the two regrouped Ortiz managed to regain her footing, preparing for her opponents. The pair charged forward together, trying to use the pressure they created to defeat her. Ortiz pressed her wrist pad and vanished. The two halted their charge and began carefully searching the arena for her. The two stood back to back until Blake was knocked to the ground, Ortiz had planted her boot between Blake's shoulders. After separating them Ortiz kicked the back of Weiss's knee, forcing her to the ground and wrenching her rapier from her hand with a twist. Blake raced back to help Weiss back to her feet, now franticly searching for Ortiz.

"That's enough Ortiz." Banks decided to end the fight there, knowing it was now over. Stepping onto the stage he stopped halfway and held out his hand. Ortiz appeared, handing over the rapier then exiting the arena. "It looks like Ortiz won. Hope there's no hard feelings?"

"What do you mean? We're still able to fight!" Weiss panted defiantly, point at the board. Blake's aura was still in the low green while she was in the low orange.

"No you lost. Ortiz started and eliminated two of you unarmed. She also disarmed you and now has obtained a weapon. You will not win, I'm stopping this fight before anything else happens." Banks said sternly, returning the rapier to Weiss. Walking off he saw Yang Climb back on stage to help Ruby up she was holding her side while removing the scythe from the ground. Glynda announced the fight as a draw and Banks was met by Ozpin.

"That was an impressive display. She handled that fight extraordinarily well considering she doesn't have a developed aura." Ozpin said calmly.

"Well that quick crash course we got explaining Aura and Semblances didn't help much, I'm sure she just winged it" He chuckled. "But to be honest, she's the only one who would've been able to handle that alone." Banks smiled proudly, crossing his arms.

"What do you mean?"

"Let's, just say she's special." He said hesitantly. "It's not my place to talk about it."

"Very well. I'm sure she will tell me when she is ready. In the mean time could you send Auburn to my office? I would like to hear about your world's history."

"No problem." Activating the radio in his helmet. "Auburn, Wade. Ozpin wants to see you in his office."

"Are we in trouble?" Wade asked timidly.

"No, you're not in trouble. He just wants a history lesson."

"Kay" Auburn grunted, taking over the radio for her.

"The rest of you know the schedule and patrol. Try not to break anything Frost." Banks sighed, knowing he was getting his hopes up.

"Hey!" Frost called out from behind him, sounding offended.

"Sledge don't let him break anything."

"No promises." Sledged replied. His voice sounded defeated, knowing how difficult his job just became.

Wade and Auburn stood in front of the headmaster's door and gently knocked on it. Less that second later a voice calmly came from the other side. "Come in." Wade opened the door and was greeted with the warm smile of the grey haired man and the single seat in front of him.

"Ah, hello there." He poured himself a cup of coffee and gestured to the empty seat. "Have a seat Miss….?"

"Wade sir. Ericka Wade." Her voice was quiet and shaky.

"Well Miss Wade, may I ask where Auburn is?"

"Right here." The helmet's visor lite up as a second voice spoke, confusing Ozpin. "Hold a sec this will make more sense." Auburn said as Wade removed her helmet. Her messy shoulder length brown hair poured out as she placed the helmet on the desk. Auburn's holographic image appeared before them, stretching her arms and legs. Ozpin pulled his head back, surprised at what was sitting on his desk "It's cramped in there. Anyways I'm Auburn, and judging by the look on your face you have no idea what I am. I am an artificial intelligence. Easy explanation, I am a computerized human."

Ozpin leaned forward, intrigued by the little human. "So you're a human in a computer?"

"No I am not a human in a computer, I'm a computer program that thinks like a human. I am capable of free thinking, emotion, and I have a personality with likes and dislikes. But I'm not here to talk about myself, I heard you want a history lesson." Auburn smiled while creating a wall of book cases and a desk that she sat at.

"So. Let's start at the beginning." She smiled, forming a pair of glasses.


	6. Chapter 6

**(A/N): History is nice. I have no idea why everyone hated it so much in school. It's prolly the easiest class one can take but I digress. Sorry this took longer to put out, finals are going on all this week and I had to study. Welp here you go, leave a review if you feel like it.**

Chapter 6: Our History

Humanity is no stranger to conflict. Throughout our history we have spilt our own blood for the pettiest reasons. The year 1945 marked the end of World War 2, a war that ended the lives of millions. To end this war, one country used an atomic bomb, weapon so powerful that just two of them had enough power to kill nearly a quarter million people. After using this weapon almost every country came to an agreement, banning the future use of them. Unfortunately, while they were banned from use, almost every country capable of producing them kept a sizable stockpile hidden away, just in case.

As the years went by our world's resources began to dwindle, primarily oil. A substance used to power nearly everything in that time. As countries became more aggressive when securing their oil reserves, the mineral rich region formerly known as the Middle East, set aside all differences and became allies to protect one another. The outside world eventually came down on their borders in the year 2073, trying to take the oil by force. With the large quantities of oil available and their combined military, they were able to hold back the other countries for several years, much longer than anyone had expected. Fortunately the war ended before anything drastic occurred when a collection of scientists from multiple countries came together and discovered a new form of energy. One that has been locked away for years. They had discovered a way to process nuclear material from the atomic bombs into a stable, clean, and most of all safe, energy source. After demonstrating that after the refining procedure was complete and the material became safe every country instantly adopted it. Soon it was discovered that it could also be used to power vehicles and be just as safe, they too were swapped out. The weapon that everyone had feared, the weapon that could end millions of lives in an instant had become humanities savior.

In 2125 our planet, Earth, had become overpopulated, forcing us to move off world and colonize other worlds. The first to be colonized was our own moon. Next we managed to terraform our closest planet, Mars, and create another home. After this humanity realized that they can no longer stand as individual countries. Together they form what is now called the Coalition, protected by the United Nations Defense Force. This military proved that with a proper reason, humanity could work together as a whole and not work against each other.

As we continued to advance technologically, space travel had produced a special trait within our populace, later called Cabals. While very rare, the radiation from space travel would affect unborn children and gift them with intelligence that would rival a super computer. They were instantly collected by the government, not to be studied, but to help advance our technology. Families that would give birth them would be provided with relocation services so that they would be near their children while they went to the government schools and would never have to work again. Parents who had Cabals would be able to visit their children at all points to prove that nothing was happening to them. Because of them, new medical advancements extended human lives, genetic alteration allowed the elimination of medical conditions before a child was born and ways to allow us to travel across the galaxy with ease.

With their help our level of technology jumped forward centuries and with it we met intelligent life. In 2234 we had the pleasure to meet the once peaceful race known as the Calder. The Calder are a race of bipedal humanoids that somehow evolved from insects. Standing at the average height of 7 feet, the Calder have a strong endoskeleton as well as a thick exoskeleton. With it they could survive the harsh conditions of their home worlds.

That peace ended in 2533 with the destruction of our home world, Earth. No one knows why or how they did it, but they somehow sent our moon into the planet, destroying both worlds. Before we could figure out what had happened we lost the entire home system, four planets and 7 orbiting space stations were destroyed. During the first year we lost many others, our training hadn't adequately prepared us for a large scale war with another race. But humans are resilient, able to adapt quickly and with it we soon managed to go on the offensive. It took many years but the war seemed close to an end when we made it to the Calder home system. Our initial hope was to force them to surrender and create another era of peace.

Oh how wrong we were.

They had conducted horrible, inhumane experiments on us. They used our own dead as weapons and with them, they forced us back once again. This war had changed from simply winning to an extermination. We finally accepted this would end when one side was gone. With the Calder home world located, new plans were made, new weapons were issued and the final assault had been decided.

"And that's all she wrote. That's a very cut down version of our history but I'm sure you get the idea about us." Auburn's library blinked away as she adjusted her glasses. She couldn't read the emotions behind the man's focused face, he did too well of a job at hiding his emotions but looking into his eyes, she could see everything. Concern, worry, pity, fear… all of them were expected. Knowing it would take a moment to full sink in, she leaned back in her chair, crossed legs and waited. The dull sound of gears turning from the mechanism above filled the silence until the headmaster finally spoke.

"Why do you think your war started?"

"To be honest, the reason was lost so long ago. But if I had to guess, there might have been some kind of issue between each other back then. Or maybe they just got tired of us and decided to kill us off."

"Those experiments, was there truly no chance of peace after that?"

Auburn stopped and hesitated about how she would explain it. "If a man walk through those doors right now, with the heads of your students." She paused and closed her eyes, playing the video recordings through her mind. "Would your forgive him?"

"That seems a little..."

"No, it's not. It is a just example. The Calder took both living and the dead, turned them into mindless husk. Some could be controlled, others would simply attack everything that moved. This school trains people to become 'Hunters' correct? People who fight these, Grimm."

"Yes."

"Then you would know that a second of hesitation can mean life and death. For you or those you are protecting. Imagine, your best friend died weeks ago. They never recovered his body and one day you round a corner to find him pointing a rifle at you. That split second of joy, shock and confusion is all they need to end you. These 'Reclaimed' feel nothing, they are just mindless drones to be used in place of their own." The disgust in her voice matched the expression on her face.

"I'm sorry Ozpin, all of this might be hard to understand but just, know that….. We aren't…." Wade stumbled with her words, unable to properly explain what she wanted to say. "Bad people…"

"It's okay, I believe you." His voice put her at ease while she sat in her seat. "Before you leave I have a question for you Miss. Wade. What do you think of the Faunus?"

"You mean the people with animal ears right? I think they're kind of cool, I mean their ears are kind of… cute…" Her white cheeks turned a shade pink while staring at the floor. Auburn held her face in embarrassment after hearing why she liked the Faunus.

"And how do you think your friends feel about them?"

"Well, I think they will like them. They're just people who look a little different, why would we have a problem with them?" Looking up from the floor her head tilted, confused why he would ask.

"Acceptance is something Beacon tries very hard to instill, and there are many who see the Faunus as animals. I'm happy to hear that you see them as equals. Thank you for your time, please enjoy your time in Remnant." With a nod, Wade picked up her helmet and left the room heading back to her friends. He stood looking out the window overlooking his school, happy to hear that his new staff are more accepting that expected.

*Ding*

Looking back to his desk he noticed a message from an unknown sender.

 _These are my children, do not judge them by their history. Despite everything they have gone through, despite everything they have lost, they are some of the kindest people I have ever known. I know that they will gladly give everything protect your students, regardless of their physical appearance. Do not betray that._

 _-Auburn-_

Chuckling, Opzin happily closed the message. Knowing that his intuition was again, correct.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Sledge, Frost, Ortiz and Banks sat around a small table that was recently added to the hanger. The air was tense as the four of them glared at each other, waiting to see who would make the first move.

"Three 8's and two 4's, a full house." Frost was the first to say anything, setting his hand on the table.

"Two pairs, a 2 and 4. Shit." Sledge threw his cards in with an exasperated sigh, half disappointed and half knowing he had a losing hand.

"Well shit, I guess I'm still pretty bad at this game. High ace" resting is chin on his hand, Banks tossed his hand on the table.

"Ha-ha, looks like I win. Bout time to, was running out of things to throw in the pot." He began to reach for the random assortment of items in the center of the table. Reaching halfway across the table Ortiz grabbed his wrist and shook her head. "Oh come on, there's no way you can possibly win again."

Ortiz released his wrist and place each card from her hand on the table one at a time. Ace of spades, king of hearts, queen of hearts, jack of clubs, and finally a 10 of hearts. "I win." She calmly spoke, taking the pot, yet again.

"Aw come on." Frost slammed his forehead on the table, disappointed at his fourth lose today. "How do you keep winning?"

"You just suck at this, that's why." Sledge muttered, lighting a cigarette.

"You lost to!" Frost threw his arms in the air.

Ortiz gave a short chuckle before handing back everyone's belongings. Seeing how they had nothing really to bet with, or have any belongings with them for that matter, they had all agreed to return everything after each game.

"So how do you think they're doing?" Frost asked while shuffling the cards, then handing the deck Ortiz the deal.

"I'm sure they'll be okay." Picking up his hand, he let out a long sigh. "I fold." 

"So what do you think of this place?" Pitt asked Wade over their radio. While patrolling the halls he could hear bits and pieces of the various subjects taught at beacon.

"I'm not sure what to think yet. But it is nice to not be shot at daily, now we just have to yell at people our age." Wade was patrolling the various courtyards around the campus, stopping to admire the large statue in front of the school.

"Yeah, I guess that's a something to be…. hold on its about to get really loud." Stepping to the side of the hall, he avoid the wave of students filling the previously empty halls.

"Class just ended. So have you seen some of the kids here? That thing they call a semblance, it's like having super powers!" Pitt said excitedly.

"I guess it's cool." Wade sounded unimpressed.

"How can you not think any of this is cool? One girl even has super speed! That's like, the coolest power ever!" Now getting into the conversation.

"Thanks." A voice said from behind.

"Your welcome." Pitt happily said.

"Uh, for what?" Wade sounded confused, wondering why he thanked her.

Realizing it wasn't Wade who spoke, he looked behind him and saw a short brunette, wearing a red cloak over her uniform smiling at him.

"I'll call you back." Hanging up he pulled his shoulders back, presenting himself as a professional. "Hello there, my names um… Pitt, um Adrian, Pitt? Wow I didn't plan on anyone speaking to me, was not prepared at all." His shoulders slouched, rubbing his neck embarrassed at how poor his introduction had been.

"It's okay, I'm not very good at meeting people either." She said smiling, trying to make the situation less awkward.

"I'll take your word on it." He smiled back. "So what can I help you with?"

"Well, I heard you talking about my semblance and I..."

"You're the one with super speed!? Aw man that's so freaking cool, how fast can you go? Can you run up walls? Can you run across water?" His excitement and sudden barrage of questions caught her off guard.

"It's not that awesome you know?" she managed to reply

"Sorry." Pitt eased off and did his best to calm down, realizing how he had acted. "It's just that ever since I was little, I read books about people with all kinds of powers and being here, surrounded by kids with them. It's a little exciting." Holding his arms up and spinning around. "So anyways, what did you want to talk about? Ruby… Right?"

"How did you know my name?"

"Well, I kind of watched a recording of your match with Sgt. Ortiz and I recognized your face. Also not many other students walk around with a red cloak either. Hope she didn't mess you guys up to much."

"Were okay, still a little sore. We didn't think she would be that strong."

"Yeah, she's someone I really wouldn't want to get angry." He shuddered at the thought of Ortiz even slightly angry. "Yeah, not pleasant."

"Sounds like my sister Yang. I remember one time my uncle accidentally pulled some of her hair out and couldn't come home for a few days." She smiled at the memory. Her uncle had to stay in a hotel in Vale the entire time.

"The blonde one is Yang right? You two look nothing alike."

"We get that a lot but yup, she's my sister." Not sure what to say, an uncomfortable silence formed between them. "So, what's your semblance?"

"I don't have one. What made you think I had one?"

"Really? The way that Professor Ozpin and Mr. Banks introduced you guys made it sound like you were like, super awesome or something."

"Well, none of us have semblances."

"Then how did Miss Ortiz turn invisible?"

"That was her suit. Hers allows her to turn invisible, mine doesn't."

"So what does yours do?" She asked poking his shoulder guard.

"Nothing, I didn't get the chance to do anything to mine yet."

Ruby was about to ask why but an angry voice down the hall cut her off. Looking in the direction of the voice they both saw a girl dressed in the same uniform as Pitt, only she was carrying her helmet in her hand as she stomped over.

"Pitt! Give me your helmet!" she commanded, her voice seething with anger.

"Oh hey Wade. What's wrong?" He asked while doing as he was told. Handing over his helmet she snatch it and replaced it with hers.

"She's your problem now!" she yelled while stomping away. A barely audible chuckle came from the helmet as Wade rounded the corner.

"What the hell did you do this time?" he asked looking at his reflection on the visor.

"All I did was ask around if there was a good clothing store nearby." A voice said nonchalantly as Pitt was about to place her on his head.

"Hey kid, where do you get your underwear?"

*SLAM* before a shocked Ruby could even give a response, Pitt had slammed the helmet into the wall.

"Ow." Was all it said.

"Sorry, Auburn can be a little, bold. Just ignore her." Pitt said while setting the helmet in place. "Oh wow, this looks nothing like I had expected." Looking around the interior of the helmet, he noticed that it was surprisingly bare. At the moment the only thing on screen was the image of Auburn in the lower left corner.

"Who are you…?" Ruby tried to speak.

"What where you expecting?" Auburn asked cutting her off.

"I don't know, maybe some more medical displays or something. You know, doctor things." He replied still ignoring Ruby.

"Who are you talking to!" she shouted, waving her hands making herself know.

"Didn't your parents tell it's rude to interrupt other people's conversations?" Auburn replied, her digital form crossed its arms.

"Didn't your parents tell it's rude to ask about other people's underwear?" ruby quipped, obviously annoyed that the two of them had forgotten about her.

"Oh aren't you a clever girl?" She said sarcastically. "Okay kid, the names Auburn. I live inside this little helmet and I've got all kinds of cool thing inside here like candy, movies, video games, candy and…" her face appearing on the visor as she introduced herself.

"Auburn please, shut up." He cut her off, her sarcasm was slowly draining his ability to think.

"Fine." She rolled her eyes. "I do in fact reside inside this specific helmet."

"What do you mean you live inside the helmet?" Ruby asked, puzzled by her explanation.

"I'm getting tired of explaining myself. Go ask Ozpin or something." Auburn now annoyed by her presence. "Run along now, I'm sure Pitt still has rounds to do and you're holding him up."

Ruby tried to interject but was cut off by Pitt agreeing with his digital friend.

"Sorry Ruby, she's right. I'm still on duty so yeah, we'll see you around." He waved while walking away.

"Okay, see you around Mr. Pitt." Ruby called while waving back. Once he was in the next hall and the students had reached their next class, he stopped and ask the important question on his mind.

"So, what the hell did you do this time?"

Auburn let out the laughter she had suppressed earlier. Its volume caused Pitt to jerk his head, trying futilely to escape it. "It was hysterical, you should've seen the look on Ericka and Glynda's Faces."

Wade stood in front of a large statue, admiring its craftsmanship as a monument like this was a rare sight back home.

"You're welcome." Pitt's voice came cover the radio.

"Uh, for what?" She replied confused why he thanked her. A few second passed until his response.

"I'll call you back wade." He said and ended the call.

"Okay then." She muttered and continued her stroll around the courtyard, enjoying the architecture of the school, and the view of the city in the distance.

"Well that was rude." Auburn huffed, her face appearing in the lower left corner of Wade's helmet.

"Someone must've asked him a question. He wouldn't hang up for no reason." She smiled to her digital friend. Walking along the white pathway, she noticed the flood of students exiting the buildings. Some quickly sped off to their next class while others stopped and chatted with friends.

"Good afternoon Mrs. Wade." A voice called out. Looking away from the students, she saw professor Goodwitch exiting the building. She was carrying a large stack of papers in one hand and holding her scroll in the other.

"Good afternoon Mrs. Good…"

"Hey what's up Double G?" auburn said in a chipper tone, cutting her off mid greeting. Her face disappeared from the corner.

"Excuse me? Glynda said with a raised eyebrow, her tone clearly sounding annoyed.

"I'm sorry that was…."

"I said what's up double G." she repeated herself. "You know, since the first letters of your name start with the letter G."

"I would prefer that you use my name correctly, and I would PREFER that you act in a professional manner." Glynda glared at the guard in front of her.

"Wow, your search history is soooooooo boring." Auburn appeared on the assistant headmaster's scroll, opening multiple files and applications.

"What are you? Get out of there this instant!" She commanded.

"Boring, boring, boring, boring!" She said in a childlike tone as more and more files where opened. "Oh, what's this? Online clothes shopping!" her form faded and reappeared wearing whatever was placed in the shopping cart. "I must say you have extraordinary tastes." She said while posing with a different set clothes. "It's a shame I don't have the assets top fill these out, luckily you don't seem to have that problem."

"Excuse me!" Gylnda's face was now red with anger and embarrassment.

"All I'm saying is that you have a voluptuous body, unlike Ericka who is flat as a board and is commonly mistaken for a…"

"Shut the fuck you!" Ericka shouted furious at what Auburn was doing. Auburn quickly left the scroll, giggle when returned to the helmet. She quickly apologized for what had happened and stormed off to the classrooms. She ignored whatever Gylnda was going to say, to embarrassed to face her. The sound of her boots hitting the floor caused students to move from her path until she found who she was looking for.

"Pitt! Give me your helmet!"

"And that's what happened." Auburn said proudly. By this point Pitt could understand why they traded helmets.

"Why did you tell the story that way? Like you were looking from the outside. "Pitt asked. "Why not just say 'Oh I said she has the body of a 15 year old boy and she got mad.' That would've saved 20 minutes." He said while trying his best to impersonate her. The retelling of the story had taken up the rest of his shift and he started to make his way back to the hanger.

"Because I wanted to waste your time." She stated plainly.

"Fair enough." He shrugged as he walked the last length of his patrol for the day.


	8. Chapter 8

**(A/N): Banks is bad at chess.**

Chapter 8

The dull sound of gears turning echoed throughout the room. Banks sat across Ozpin's desk, staring intently into his eyes. Without looking away from Banks, the grey haired headmaster made a move.

"I see that you and your friends are coming to terms with this whole ordeal quite well." Ozpin calmly stated, moving a white rook four spaces forward and removing the black knife from the board.

"I think they just didn't bother even trying to understand what had happened." Moving his black pawn forward. "They seem to like it here, some of your students have also spoken to them."

"That is good to hear." His knight over takes the pawn, adding another piece to the collection.

"Frost seems to like listening to that Port guy, Wade has made it a habit to visit the infirmary as often as possible to study, Pitt seems to fitting most around here and despite his appearance, Sledge likes the library." Sighing and hesitantly moving another piece to its doom.

"And what about Mrs. Ortiz? Check." Ozpin asks, moving his piece across the board and placing his opponent in check.

"She prefers to be alone. But I'm sure she is enjoying her time here." Sacrificing his own queen, giving him another turn.

"Is that so?" Tapping his cane on the floor, he placed his bishop in the center of the board. "I also heard that Gynda had a rather 'exciting' conversation with Auburn. Check."

Looking at the chess table intensely, Banks eventually moves his king one square forwards. "I heard, but I can't control what she does. If she wants to do it she's going to do it."

"Is that so? And who is she with right now?" Sliding his second rook into position a sly grin creeps across his face. "Checkmate."

"Again? Damn." Disappointed by yet another loss, he starts resetting the table. "She's with Frost, probably having a very lively conversation with him. How many times is that? 6?"

"7. By my count."

"That many? Man I'm bad at this."

"But I will admit you are quite persistent." Ozpin chuckles.

"Sometimes a little persistence can win you a lot." With a grin, he moves his first piece.

The energetic atmosphere of Central Vale felt like a foreign land for Wade and Sledge as they walk down the busy streets, looking through the windows of various stores and restaurants. The citizens who managed to get the day off or leave work early greeted each other as they walked by, enjoying their little break from the long workweek.

"Wow! This place is amazing! All these buildings, they're so beautiful." Wade said in awe, her head nearly detaching from her body as she spun around.

"I know right? All of them are standing intact and there are people actually walking around." Despite sounding like a smart-ass, he too was experiencing a bit of culture shock. He could barely remember the last time he could walk down a street and not worry about being shot at.

The two of them were dressed in light grey digital trousers and slightly darker grey skin tight shirts. Courtesy of General Ironwood, since none of them had anything else to wear besides their armor. The two of them would receive odd looks whenever they entered a new shop. Wade would try and avoid eye contact while Sledge did the opposite and would stare back with a bored expression until they turned away. Today was their first actual day off since arriving a week ago and Banks had let them be the first to go to the city to pick up the essentials. Their first paycheck was larger than what any of them had expected and it would allow them to purchase nearly everything on the first trip.

"You might want to wait outside for a bit." Stopping abruptly in the middle of the sidewalk, she politely suggested without looking away from something.

"Why would I… oh" He stopped midsentence when he noticed where they had ended up. Looking through the window he could see several mannequins displaying women's clothing. "Yeah, I'll be outside. Right here waiting." He sighed while taking the bags she was carrying and leaning against the column next to the door.

"I'll be back in a minute." She smiled as she went inside. Nearly twenty minutes had passed as Sledge was now sitting on the floor, still waiting for Wade to come out. Now that boredom had set in he had begun to observe the people as they passed by. He noticed that at first glance everyone seemed happy, but after looking closer he noticed that the crowds seemed, "segregated". Faunus and non-Faunus generally did not mix together. Granted that there would occasionally be a group with a mixture of the two, but that was seldom to occur. He let out a long sigh, not particularly sure how to feel about his observation. Part of him thought it was strange that they all avoid each other simply because of their animal features while the part didn't care in the slightest. His thoughts were interrupted by Wade's voice.

"Alright! I'm back!" she called out, kicking him in the leg. Looking up he noticed the number of bags in her hands.

"Holy shit lady, how much did you need to buy? I don't even think we have enough room for that much." Sledge pointed out. While they had each been given a moderately sized locker, the amount Wade had purchased looked like she would need several just to store them.

"I may, MAY, have gotten a little carried away." Sounding guilty, she rubbed the back of her head.

"Just so you know, you're carrying those." Pointing at the bags in her hands and the ones she left with him. "Wanna get something to eat before we head back? The school food is great and all but I wanna see what food they have here." He suggested as he collected his bags. "You do have enough to buy yourself lunch right?"

"Yeah, I still have enough." Looking around she pointed out a small café about a block down the road. "How about that place?"

"Looks good to me lets go."

The two of them let out happy, content sighs as they set down their coffee cups. The café they had entered didn't sell meals, but rather it sold deserts and snacks. Nonetheless they were happy with its little menu.

"Good idea for coming here Wade. I don't think I've ever had anything that sweet before." He smiled, glad he had ordered the cheesecake.

"Thanks, I think I'm going to tell everyone else about this place and I'm definitely coming back here." Taking a sip from her cup. The happy moment ended with Sledge jumping up and bolting out the door, leaving everything around the table.

"Hey where are… Damn it!" She stood up, ignoring the stares of the other patrons as she threw more than enough lien to cover the cost of the food on the table. Leaving everything at the table she ran out the door after him. Once outside she realized why he had suddenly ran outside. In the alleyway across the street, several men were surrounding another person, dressed in a tattered robe and most likely homeless. When men threw the homeless person to the ground, Sledge had broken into a full sprint towards them.

"The fuck do you think you're doing!" His shout startling them as he tackled one of the men to the ground. Landing on top of the man he began to swing at the man's face. After a few hits another managed to pull him off and hold him back with a bear hug.

"I don't know why you're helping it! It's nothing but a filthy animal!" The man shouted after getting to his feet, hitting him across the jaw.

"Look at it! It's living like a stray, just as it should!" the third one shouts while smiling. This one planted his knee into his stomach.

Thinking fast Wade grabbed and threw one of the nearby thrash lids. "Think fast numb nuts!" The lid slammed into the temple of the one who had kneed Sledge, knocking him to the ground. With the distraction Sledge brought his legs up and kicked the other man in the chest, sending him in to the wall and causing the man holding him to lose balance, releasing him. Once free be planted his boot into the man's face, breaking his nose.

"Who the fuck do…." The man who had been hit with the lid recovered only to be hit across the jaw by Wade. Realizing they wouldn't win they ran out of the alley and down the street.

"Just wait!" One of them shouted, still running away. "You freaks will get it!"

"Yeah! Well I'll be waiting!" Sledge shouted back as they ran, throwing out his chest. Turning back to the alley he helped the homeless person to their feet.

"Thank you!" the voice was female and sounded shaken by the incident. "If you hadn't shown up, I don't know what would've happened." She removed her hood and a pair of dog ears flopped up.

"Oh my god….."Wade's mouth dropped a little. "Can I touch them?" she started moving her hands towards the woman's ears. A slap to the back of her head stopped her.

"The hell to you so long?! They started to kick my ass cause of you!" he said while messaging his jaw.

"You're the one who ran out the restaurant with saying anything!" she protested, angry that he was blaming her for his injuries. "I had to stop and pay for everything otherwise they might have thought we just ran out you asshole!"

In the middle of their argument the lady let out a quiet giggle. "You two are such good people." She had an unsettling smile on her face and the helpless tone was no longer present. "I certainly hope you survive." She handed each of them a black, metal card.

"Excuse me? The hell is that…."

His question was interrupted by a series of explosion echoing from up the street. Running out of the alley the two of them stood in shock as vehicles and store fronts erupting into flame and debris. Looking over his shoulder, the lady had mysteriously disappeared as the explosions came closer.

"Fuck me sideways, let's go!" He shout, grabbing Wade by the waist and pulling her farther into the alley, taking cover behind a dumpster. The explosions pass by with one of them going off right in front of the alley. Coughing from the amount of smoke and dust that filled the alley, together they slowly stumbled out into the street.

"Oh god…" Wade muttered, wide eyed and shocked from what had happened. Looking around dust filled the air and left a layer on the ground as it settled. Moans of pain came from underneath a nearby pile of rubble. Together they pulled a man from the rubble, his head had a large gash across it and his clothes were ripped all over. "Hey, hey don't worry. You're going to be okay." Her training kicked in. "Can you tell me your name?" She began asking questions while feeling over his body, trying to assess his condition. Before she could get a response, a gunfire rang from up the road.

"Aw come on it's my day off!" Sledge pulled open the door of a nearby car, creating a makeshift barrier between them and the direction of the gunfire.

"Now's not the time to be a smart ass." Wades voice changed from its cheery tone to cold methodical. Several rounds flew in their direction, one glancing off the ground next to them while others hitting the car body. "Help me move him."

Sledge complied and lifted the man over his shoulder. Moving swiftly they managed to get away and stopped after running into a flipped police car.

"Hold on." Sledge set the man down around the corner of an intact building and began searching the car. Two officers were hanging upside down, still buckled in. Checking for a pulse he found none but fortunately he found their weapons. Pulling them out, he collected and handed one to Wade. She nodded and took it without question and continued to help the now unconscious man as best she could. In the distance he could now see at least half a dozen figures in black armor slowly walking down the street, shooting down alleys and the occasional burst of flame being sent into the buildings.

"Not good, not good." He pulled his scroll from his pocket and dialed for Banks.

 _*Ring Ring* *Ring Ring*_

"Hey Sled…" Banks was cut off when the figures noticed him, a burst was fired at him.

"We have a problem!" He shouted into the scroll. Ducking behind the police car, sticking his hand out to fire a few blind shots. "Things blew up and now people are shooting us!"

"What happened?!"

"I don't know! The street just started to explode, we hid in an alley and now these guys in black armor are shooting at us."

"Where are you guys at?"

"Central Vale or something! Look for the smoke!" Hanging up, he stepped out and fired an aimed shot, but pulled back before he could tell if he had landed a hit. Without their armor, they were vulnerable.


	9. Chapter 9

**(A/N): Still not good at writing fight scenes. Since I'm mentally handy-capped and I can't figure out how to make the lines that separate texts, I now will use 'line break" to separate stuff.**

Chapter 9

"Hellooooooooooo!" Auburn's voiced echoed throughout the empty hanger. Moments ago her everyone had been collecting their gear and boarding the bullhead, sadly forgetting her on the table. "Those ungrateful little shits. How can you forget me?! The fucking talking helmet!" Beside her was a half consumed soda bottle. Its mascot's smiling face stared right at her, as if mocking her.

"I don't want to hear anything from you." Pointing the bottle. "Unlike you I'm able to… I'm now speaking to a soda. It's okay I know how to get back at them, I just download a few things." She chuckled.

"And now I'm talking to myself." She muttered, slapping her forehead after noticing her monologue.

"Great."

 **(Line Break)**

The turbulence of the flight felt all too familiar to them, gently tossing them side to side as they sped to rescue their friends. The rapidly approaching pillars of smoke created a wall, blocking his view of the far side of the city. With A quick fly-by of the street banks located his two friends on the edge of an intersection, hiding behind a flipped vehicle. Alongside them were several officers, trying to keep the terrorists at bay. At some point they must have noticed them, dust rounds impacted the side of the bullhead with a few flying through the open bay doors. One of them had glanced off of Frost's shoulder, luckily his shields where active and it merely caused them to flare before recharging.

"Well damn! Lucky shot ha-ha!" Frost laughed off the single shot. Standing from his seat he leaned out the door to see the battle below. "Looks like it's only eight?" He pointed at the black armored figures.

"Looks that way. Okay hears the plan, we'll land just behind Wade and Sledge. If they have nothing else to report you two will stick to left side of the street." He said pointing at both Frost and Pitt, they nodded. "I will stick to the right, if we force them from cover Ortiz can drop them. Remember to check your targets, there are in fact civilians down there if you didn't notice."

They all gave a form of acknowledgement as they waited to land. The engines sent the dust that had settled back into the air as they jumped out and ran to the firefight. Getting closer banks could see Sledge crouched against an overturned police car.

"Sledge, coming up from behind!" He called, sliding next to him. The rest sliding behind other forms of scattered cover. "So what's the situation?" He asked nonchalantly, on the opposite side of him sat an officer staring.

"Welcome to the party! It looks like we have maybe 7 uninvited guests and they brought some toys, mostly in the form of rifles and flamethrowers." Sledge informed with a smile. "Oh, and this is officer Bleu. Officer Bleu, this is Sergeant Banks."

"Hello." He shook his hand. "Where's Wade?"

"You passed her on the way over, she's looking after the wounded." He pointed somewhere in the direction they had arrived from.

"How can you two be so calm!?" Bleu shouted.

"You get used to this." Banks and Sledge said in unison. Behind Bleu, Frost had removed his helmet and motioned with is fingers for Pitt to give him a cigarette. After giving one to Frost Sledge asked for one, firing around the corner as he lite it.

"I'd hate to have your job if you can get used to any of this! I never thought any of this could happen on my first day! It's like one of those cheesy movies!" Bleu exclaimed, now questioning his line of work after seeing the three behind him act so casually. "So where are the rest of you guys?"

"This is it."

"You're joking? Well at least Atlas sent somebody. We had tried calling you as soon as we figured out what was happening but no one would answer. I was beginning to think they wouldn't send anyone to help."

"We're not…. Never mind. Is there anything else you can tell me? Where your backup?" peering over the hood banks could see the enemy soldiers doing that same.

"That's it. We tried to send a team from behind but it didn't go well. So we were ordered to contain them until you guys showed up."

"Alright good to hear." He said patting him on the shoulder. "Stay back with Sledge and watch our backs."

"You got it." He nodded.

Looking over the hood Banks searched for the next piece of cover to move to. Halfway in the intersection a burned out van lay on its side.

"I'm moving up! Cover me!" Banks bolted from his cover, keeping his head low while moving to the van. The torrent of bullets from his team kept the enemy suppressed long enough to reach the van safely as the enemy retaliated with their own wall of bullets. "Pitt you're next! Now, Go!" Banks fired ahead as both Pitt and Frost moved forward. Pitt slid into cover with no issue but Frost's shields flared until it dropped. He managed to dive into an alley a few feet ahead of Pitt and began to laugh over the radio.

Letting out a sigh of relief he replaced the empty magazine before scolding him. "The hell was that Frost?!"

"Sorry, got a little excited that's all. But I did learn something from that." He stated.

"And what would that be?" Pitt asked pulling his shoulder closer as a burst glanced off the ground next to him.

"It takes more dust rounds to drop our shields."

Peeking out from cover Banks caught a glimpse as a white flash radiated from one of the terrorists as he fell back and scurried back against his car.

"They have shields too." Ortiz pointed out over the radio.

"You're kidding?" Taking another look at the terrorist who fell back a moment ago. This time just as he stood up to fire his head snapped back as a red mist painted the concrete behind him.

"They don't seem to recharge like ours." She added calmly.

"Good to know." He let of a determined sigh. "Moving up!" Like before he jumped out and ran as his team provided suppressing fire. His destination was the building on the corner of the intersection. Midstride a few feet away one of them carrying a flamethrower rounded out from cover with the nozzle aim in his direction.

"Oh Boy!" He shouted, diving out of the corner of the building. A wave of heat engulfed his calves and his shields had failed, sirens blasted in his helmet. Back against the wall he could hear the man taunt him in a raspy, muffled voice.

"Come out and play little souja boy…" His playful tone sent a chill down his spine.

'Fucking hell...' He thought to himself, pulling the pin from the grenade. The sound of the spoon ejecting made a small smile creep across his face as he counted down. "Five, four, three…"

The little sphere of death rolled from around the corner, stopping at the feet of the flame unit. "Two." The flame unit let out a maniacal laugh, one that disturbed Banks even more than the play full tone.

"One." The sound of Banks shield recharging replaced the sirens as he shuffled away from the corner was drowned out by the grenade exploding. A wall of flame, dust and debris flew passed him, dropping his shield again.

"h-ly s—t h-!"

"a- - al—t?"

"—nks?"

The combination of heat and debris interfered with his radio as his team tried to speak to him. He didn't move until his shield were done recharging, lest another flamethrower lie waiting for him. His radio cleared up once the flames died down.

"Are you alright?" Pitt shouted, sounding worried.

"I'm fine!" He replied, he could hear the sighs of relief over the radio. "So it looks like whatever they're carrying is more volatile than whatever was in our flamethrowers."

"The hell does volatile mean?" With his lack of vocabulary Frost was unable to fully understand his observation.

"He means it makes bigger explosions." Pitt reloading

"Why didn't you just say that? Yeah, whatever he was carrying took two of his friends with him!" Returning fire while getting a better glance of the scorch mark left behind.

"Well that's good hear, how many are left Ortiz?" He asked, sliding to the corner.

"Four." She stated, another fire ball erupted on the other side of the street. "Three, they're falling back." correcting her previous statement. The three remaining terrorists slowly fell back, firing after each movement. Taking this opportunity, the three of them pushed forward as Ortiz stayed behind. Oddly they stopped dead center of the street, in the open with no form of cover and opened fire on the advancing three. The last stand ended abruptly as they were put down with little effort.

"Looks like they gave up, I know I would if I saw this natural born killer walking down the street." Frost joked while scanning the buildings.

"There were eight of them Frost. Sgt. Banks got three, and Sgt. Ortiz got two. We didn't kill any of them before they did this."

"Thanks Pitt. Way to kill my buzz."

Throwing a hand up both frost and Pitt stopped, holding position while Banks moved to inspect the three soldiers they had just killed. Two of them lay sprawled on the asphalt, both of them had received trans-optical implants. The coughing from the third caught his attention, slouched on a nearby car was a bullet riddled body. Moving closer, his laughter would constantly be cut of by coughing fits as he began choking on his own blood. Standing in front of him, barrel inches from his face the two of them stared through each other's visors.

"Who are you?" Banks asked, the choked out laughter gave him an uneasy feeling.

"We…. Are the cleansing flame…." The man choked out. Lifting his hand banks saw why he had continued laughing in the face of death. In his hand was a small cylinder, with a dark red button on one end.

"SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!" Spinning around he motioned for everyone to back up. Between his shouting and his feet pounding the ground, the final words from the dying man was clear.

"For… Purity…" The force from the explosives lifted Banks easily off the ground, sending him through the second story window of an apartment building. Laying on the shatter remains of a dining table, it felt as if every bone in his body had been shattered. The sirens from his drained shields drowned out every word from his team as they franticly called for him. Unable to keep them open any longer his heavy eyes slowly shut, as silence and darkness flooded his mind.


	10. Chapter 10

**(A/N): Hooray for piss poor backstory.**

Chapter 10

The names, dozens of names scrolled across the screen. Each one bringing with it the stabbing pain of guilt as he sat in silent reflection. Whenever he would look away, he would force himself to stare out the ship's porthole. The frigate First Spring sat orbiting the planet while the battle continued below. All over its surface, the burning cites created orange sores. The largest one, the former capital of the planet, was surrounded by dozens of smaller ones. One of them stood out the most, just north of the capital was a ball of fire roughly the size of an eraser tip at this distance. Fixated on it, he remembered everything. He remembered it was there he took command after every superior above him had died. He remembered it was also where he lied to them. It was where he abandoned them, leaving them to die knowing that help wouldn't come for those he left behind. Throwing the data pad across the small room, he fell to his knees and buried his face in his hands.

*knock-knock*

The sounds of someone knocking on his door snapped him back to reality. Doing his best to calm himself he took several deep breathes and opened the door.

"Captain Fitzgerald." Banks saluted the stout, orange haired officer and invited him inside. "To what do I owe the pleasure sir?"

"I came down to personally congratulate you on your mission and inform you of your promotion. Congratulations, Sergeant."

Hearing this, the strength disappeared from his legs as he sat on his bunk. The mattress springs squeaking as they form around him. _'So I kill half of my men, and I get promoted…'_

"I would like to deny my promotion sir..."

"You don't have that option Sgt."

"Sir, I abandoned my men!" His emotions began building up, everything he had thought about till now began pouring out. "I fucking lied to them! I told them another shuttle would come get them! I knew another wouldn't come but I lied to them and got on the last one." Slouching over, he covered his head with his hands. "I don't deserve to lead! I shouldn't even be here!" Jumping from the bed, driven by emotions he punched his locker in frustration. Ignoring the throbbing pain from his fractured hand he rested his head on the dented locker.

"Are you done yet?" His face remained stoic and his voice was indifferent, unfazed by Sgt. Banks breakdown. Unable to form words he only nodded his head. "Good, command promoted you fully aware of what happened during your mission. You're quick thinking and despite what you think, your ability to lead is why they promoted you."

"They know what did, and they still want me to lead… why?"

"I don't know, I wasn't present when they came to this decision, but they believe that you are capable."

Sliding down the locker, banks did everything to control his emotions. His gaze fell to the corner where his data pad had fallen, the guilt came back harder than before. Noticing this the captain collected it and stepped outside the door. Before he left he said one last thing.

"Remember Sergeant, sometimes you will have to make difficult decisions. Sometimes there will be no right option. You're in charge now, wake up and act like it."

'Wake up….. why does that sound important?' those two words echoed in his mind. The voice slowly moved deeper into his mind as his vision slowly faded.

(Line break)

The bright lights burned his eyes as they slowly opened. Looking around it appeared that he had been moved to hospital. The steady beeping from the heat monitor on his left helped solidify his assumption, yet the room itself didn't resemble one. The normal sterile white walls and tile were replaced with warm hardwood floors and tan walls. Ignoring the throbbing pain from his skull he crawled out of bed, shutting of the heart monitor and began limping for the door. Reaching for the handle, knocking him back as it flew open.

"Oh no!" A lady panicked. "I'm so sorry! I mean, I'm sorry sir!" stumbling over her words as she pulled Banks to his feet.

"It's alright." He reassured her, noticing her uniform he could tell she was from Atlas and judging by her behavior she was barely out of basic training. "So what's your name?"

"Pvt. Flores sir!" She snapped to attention and saluted.

"You don't have to salute me, where am I?"

"You're at Beacon sir, someone from your team said to take you here instead of the hospital." She said timidly.

"Is that so?"

"Yes sir, um… I'm actually here to get you, sir."

"Why?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"I was told to bring you to general ironwood as soon as you woke up. He's with two of your men in the headmaster's office. If you're well enough I can escort you there."

"Alright just walk slowly, if I remember correctly I was just sent through a window." He chuckled. The journey to Ozpin's office was awkward as Flores had remained silent the whole way. She finally broke the silence during the elevator ride up.

"Excuse me sir?"

"Yes Flores?"

"Can I ask, how did you do it?"

"Do what?" his head tilted slightly, confused by her question.

"How did you stop them…..? How did you stop them so easily?" her voice shaky and strained.

"We killed them? I'm not sure what you're asking."

"I mean how did you do it without anyone dying?"

"Like I said, we just killed them. Just like we were trained to do." He still wasn't sure why she was asking as she turned her gazed to the floor. The rest of the ride up was silent and the soft ding of the elevator was a small relief as he exited.

"Everyone is inside sir." She muttered.

"Thank you." he patted her on the shoulder before she walked away. Opening the door he saw both Ozpin and ironwood stand on the far side of the room behind a desk with wade and sledge sitting infront of them.

"Ah, it's good to see that you're doing well Sergeant. Please come in, we were hoping you could help us piece together what happened this afternoon." Coming to his place beside the headmaster he saw that Sledge was indifferent to this situation while Wade sat still. Her eyes were closed as if deep in thought.

"Okay well, at some point this afternoon Sledge called us via scroll informing us that a group of heavily armed individuals had started shooting. Upon landing we met up with Sledge and he informed me of the situation. Since both him and wade didn't have any of their equipment I had them stay behind as the rest of us dealt with them. After pushing forwards and killing half of them they started retreating. We followed and they stopped in the middle of the street and we took the opportunity to put them down. If you need more details, I can give you the recordings from our helmet cams." Banks stated, General ironwood looked visibly upset as he briefly explained the attack.

"Is there anything else you can tell us?" ironwood spoke with a frown, still upset from something.

Thinking back he thought of a list of noteworthy things, "well for starters they're clearly well trained, possibly former military or the one training them was former military. They're also equipped with portable shield generators like our own, only they either don't recharge or they take longer to recharge. I'm not sure since we didn't get the chance to test that one out. And judging by the last words one of them said they're more than willing to kill themselves for whatever their goal is."

"Care to explain?" Ozpin curiously asked **.**

"Right before the one I spoke to detonated whatever he was carrying he said, 'We are the cleansing flame, for purity'." Pressing his thumb on an imaginary detonator.

"This is troubling." The general said, looking at the headmaster with worried eyes. "It would have been one thing if this was an attack from the White Fang but if this was another group altogether…." He trailed off. "You two where there before this happened, can you remember anything? Anything at all?" he directed his gaze at Sledge.

"Like I said the last time and the time before that, the bombs started going off right after we helped a homeless Faunus who was being harassed by some guys. After we helped her she gave us those cards," he pointed at the two black cards on the desk. "Then said 'you two are such nice people, I hope you survive.' And here we are now."

"Do you remember what she looked like?" Ozpin asked after a long sip of coffee.

"Brown hair, dog ears, tattered clothes? Wade do you remember anything else?" he asked turning his head when he didn't get a response. "Wade?"

Sledge gently nudged her in the arm and her eyes shot open. Looking around in confusion, as if she didn't know where she was, "Oh sorry everyone. I was just…. Processing everything, what were we talking about?" Her monotone voice was disturbingly cold.

"Wade, why don't you and Sledge go get some rest, we can talk about his tomorrow." Banks calmly suggested. After the two of them had left the dull sounds from the clock above filed the room.

"Will she be alright?"

Banks wasn't sure and dodged the question with his own. "The officer I met said that they had sent several distress calls to Atlas but nobody received no response. Why?" he turned directly at the general.

Ironwood sighed and moved to the window, looking out into the city one could see that the smoke had long been extinguished yet the area still remained alight from the large amount of military activity.

"Before you make your assumptions, I am fully aware of this communication error. This afternoon communication between both kingdoms ceased altogether, no messages left nor entered each one. In addition, the same thing happened in Atlas only we did not fare as well. They also committed suicide before we could speak to them."

"The troubling detail is that both kingdoms were unable to communicate with each other but still communicate within the kingdom." Ozpin added.

"How is that an important detail?" Banks asked.

"It's important because if one communication tower goes down, the whole network does to. Meaning that all four kingdoms wouldn't be able to contact each other. Every form of electronic communication goes down as well, you shouldn't have been able to receive that call from the city."

"So what happens when you have to work on one of the towers?"

"It is publicly scheduled in advance, and everything will be temporarily offline." Ironwood stated. "Routine maintenance normally takes around 3 hours but I still doesn't explain how this happened."

"Would a frequency scrambler have this kind of effect?" banks asked. His suggestion was met with confused looks, clearly this technology didn't exist here. "Okay, where I'm from we had a tool that would disrupt radio frequencies and make communication nearly impossible. The only downside was that is affected anyone within its radius. So anyone working in an affected area would be reduced to direct communication."

"This... is a frightening possibility." Ozpin replied. "Do you have anything else to add?"

Banks shook his head, nothing else came to mind.

"Well then I believe we are done here for now. General ironwood will be handling security around the campus for now so you and your team are free to take the next few days off."

"Good night then. If you need anything you know where to find us." Banks said as he left.

Both Ironwood and Ozpin continued to stare at the door after he left. Looking away to inspect one of the cards Ozpin the word, "Purity…." The card he held was a thin piece of black metal. The white border had been etched in along with the blue flame placed in the center. The two of them pulled the news recording from that afternoon and examined it closely late into the night.


	11. AN

Hello! If any of you are still keeping track of this story, I just wanted to let you all know I'm finally back and will start posting as often as I can. I'm going to have to work around my job as best as I can especially since things will pop up randomly and I will be getting screwed over often. After being gone for 5-6 months I reread my posted chapters and I found things that honestly made me laugh at how poorly I wrote them. So I'll try to post new ones since all I could really do was write stories during training and I have a few rough drafts I'm polishing off. So expect rewrites before a lot of new ones come out. So yeah I'll try to keep y'all happy as best as I can and on a side note, surprisingly after catching up on season three, I can happily say that my original plan for the story can actually follow along with it pretty closely. If y'all want, I can try and post short bio chapters of everyone just to fill in the gaps.

Well I guess that's it for now, I'll try to get a new chapter and a rewrite out sometime this month as fast as I can so until then, standby to standby.

Ashita ne.


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

 **(A/N): Finally, here's the next chapter. I have the next like 2, 3 already made, I just have to check them for grammar errors and shit like that. The chapters seem to get loner as I write them, they seemed so short when I made the skeleton. I'm like dying right now, I've got homework to finish, a test in the morning, and a PT session at 0500, most likely in the rain. Dip is the only think keeping me awake. That and the need to finish this and use it as aa excuse to procrastinate. At least it's only a half day. Hope this makes up for lost time and please R n' R. it helps me figure out what I need to fix.**

"So tell me again why are we going to the hanger so early?" Weiss asked annoyed at their young leader. Team RWBY were on their way to see sergeant Banks and his staff to see what they were up to since they haven't been patrolling the school since Ironwood stayed over.

"Because Weiss, I wanted to see if they're okay." Ruby stated. "If you haven't noticed no one has really seen them since Friday."

"After what happened I can imagine why they would want to be left alone." Blake stated. "Tt must've been difficult to have to go through all that chaos."

"I think they handled it pretty well." Yang commented. "Remember those videos, those terrorists never stood a chance."

"Just because they handled it doesn't mean they're okay Yang. Remember what they said when they arrived? They're a research company. While they say its primarily for defense research, they never said they were professional soldiers. They most likely never expected to experience something like that." Blake corrected.

"What makes you say that?" Ruby turned around, now walking backwards.

"I saw Wade and Sledge leaving Professor Ozpin's office and Wade didn't look too good…." Thinking back to the night of the attack.

"Which another is reason we shouldn't be bothering them right now."

"Bothering who?" Rounding the corner of the building Pitt greet the four of them. "Morning girls." Taking another puff of his cigarette he stood next to the hanger door dressed in light gray boots and utes.

"Morning Mr. Pitt!" Ruby chirped. "How are you?"

"I'm fine Ruby, and can you stop calling me mister… I'm a little too young to be called that by you guys." Finishing his cigarette, he continued while putting it out with the heel of his boot. "So what can I help you girls with?"

"We actually came down to see what you guys were up to." Yang said with a smile.

"Oh, well see for yourself." Opening the door, he let the girls inside. Looking around everything was a mess. Supply crates, duffle bags and disassembled gear littered the hanger. At one end of the hanger two rows of five cots had been set up and an additional transport had been allowed to dock.

"What happened here?" Weiss asked, put off by the hanger's current state.

"Did we miss a party?" Yang sounded disappointed.

"No, nothing happened. Sgt. Banks just took the squad General Ironwood had assigned him for morning PT." Pitt explained.

"You mean to go haze them." In the center of the hanger, Sledge and Auburn sat around a set of cheap patio furniture. "Banks went to go haze the hell out of them." Sledge repeated, flipping a page in his book.

"What's hazing?" Ruby asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"Think of it like an initiation. A very painful and humiliating initiation." Auburn answered with a bored tone. Her hologram lying on the table, string at the ceiling.

"So like the initiation to enroll into beacon?" Blake asked, trying to understand the explanation.

"Yes and no." Sitting at the table, Pitt tried to explain as best as he could. "Your initiation served a purpose, to test your combat abilities."

"Or some shit like that." Sledge interrupted, writing something in his book.

"Yeah, something like that. Except Hazing is done just to ruin someone's day." His explanation didn't help, the four girls still trying to understand why they would do that. "Anyways, where's Sgt. Ortiz?"

"Her Hidey hole." Sledge answered.

"Frost?"

"Making new toys." Auburn spoke before sledge could. She sat up and stretch while yawning.

"Should I…."

"I would. He ran off screaming 'I have an awesome Idea!' and I'm not looking for that headache." Breaking eye contact with his book, Sledge shot Pitt a look that clearly said " _You go do it_."

Standing up, Pitt let out a sigh, "Fine, fine. I'll go look for him. I mean, I would hate to disrupt your reading." He said sarcastically while walking away. Reaching the door, it swung open and sent him to the floor. In the doorway Frost shouted while throwing a metallic object into the room.

"HEY GUYS!" A wide smile on his face. "LOOK WHAT I MADE!" A metal tube landed on the table. Looking at the strange tube, Sledge and Auburn's eye widened with shock. As the girls kept examining he object, Auburn receded into the helmet and Sledge closed his eyes and cover his ears, muttering a single word.

"Fuck."

 _ ***Bang***_

With dust as the explosive, the flashbang had enough force to knock Auburn and Sledge from the table. The four girls on the other hand had their aura passively shielding them from the blast, yet they would still suffer from its effects.

"What in remnant happened!?" Wiess shouted, feeling around her hands landed on Ruby's shoulder.

"I don't know! Yang? Is that you?" Reaching behind her she felt around with one hand while the other was rubbing her eyes.

"Hey!" Weiss yelped. "Watch where your hands are going!"

"Sorry!"

"Why does it feel like I just got kicked in the head?!" Holding her head, ears pounding like drums, Yang struggled to remain standing. Stumbling backwards she tripped over Auburn, who said nothing, and sat on her rear till the effects began to fade.

Blake was the only one still at the table. It appeared as if she was suffering the most, clutching her ears with her head between her thighs. "My ears!" She shouted in pain. "My eyes! What happened!?"

Used to the effects and the split second of preparation, Sledge unsteadily rose to his feet. His vision slowly returning he carefully moved around the incapacitated girls and stumbled in Frost's direction. "FROST!" He shouted, his stumble quickly steadied and became a sprint. "WHAT THE EVER LIVING FUCK!" Frost responded with a firm middle finger and disappeared out the door with Sledge following seconds behind. One by one the girls eventually made their way back to the table, still dealing with the residually effects such as hearing loss.

Tired of lying on the floor he collected Auburn and shuffled to the table setting her down across from the girls. Before he took his seat she asked him a question

"Sooooo Pitt, why did you bring them here? Trying to find a girlfriend?" She didn't even bother to materialize as she teased him.

"No!" He blurted out, praying that the four students didn't hear her. "Nothing like that, they just wanted to make sure we were alright."

Eyeing the four girls, she carefully examined each one. "The one in black is the cutest in my opinion."

"What?" Barely hearing her, Blake continued to massage the base of her bow.

"Damn it Auburn!" Pitt cried, his face turning red at her assumptions.

"Aww look at you, getting all flustered." She teased. "My baby is growing up so fast."

"You're supposed to pick on Wade! Not me!"

"But she's asleep, and I'm sooooo bored!" She sighed. "So anyways, how are you four doing?"

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF DUST WAS THAT?!" Wiess shouted, slamming her hands on the table causing auburn to bounce several times. "how can you be so irresponsible and throw things like that around?"

"Weiss calm…" Yang tried to calm her friend down but she cut her sentence short.

"No! He just threw…. Whatever that was with no regard for anyone's safety! We could've been seriously injured!"

"It's a flashbang." Pitt tossed out.

"It's nonlethal princess." Auburn spat back. "And if that words too big for you, it means it wasn't designed to kill, only disable. We know exactly what we're doing so you should keep your assumptions to yourself."

"That doesn't justify his reckless behavior!"

"Calm down Wiess, they said it wasn't going to kill us." Trying again to calm her Yang's attempt failed.

"Look around yang, this place is a mess, hey throw weapons around for fun, and they act like children! Ozpin made a mistake to hire these people."

"Last I checked one of these 'children' kicked your entitled ass up and down the arena." Auburn said with a sly grin, now materializing to show her face and enjoy Weiss's reaction. She finally ended her rant, unable to for a respond to the A.I.'s remark. The door to the hanger opened with Sgt. Banks casually jogging to the table, dressed in full combat gear.

"I'm back!" He hollered out cheerfully. "Oh hello girls." Greeting them he took a seat across from them.

"Morning Mr. banks." Ruby chirped.

"Good morning." Blake politely greeted

"Morning." Sounding like she was fighting a hangover, Yang greeted the sergeant.

Wiess remained silent, glaring at Auburn.

"Morning Sgt." Pitt said, taking a seat next to Ruby. She smiled and waved to which he returned the gesture with his own smile. "So where's the rest of them?"

Looking at his wrist pad, he pointed to the door and counted down. "Three… two… one…" Right on cue the group came stumbling into the hanger, drenched in sweat and on the verge of passing out. "Right there." Getting up he stood in front of them as they hastily made a formation. "Platoon, atten-hut!" The tired solders snapped to attention, struggling to remain standing. "Its 1045, come back at 1300 and finish organizing the hanger. FALLOUT!"

"AYE AYE SIR!" They shouted back in unison and fell to the floor exhausted. Some wobbled to the showers while several darted for the trash can to vomit.

"They didn't do too bad." Banks commented once he made back to his seat. "They made to about zero nine before they started breaking off. Much longer than I expected." Smiling he removed his helmet and produced a flask, taking a gulf, he offered it to Pitt who hesitantly declined. "So what are…"

"Are you drinking?" Weiss finally spoke, no longer able remain silent.

"Noooooooooo…." Banks smiled like a child, dragging his answer out.

"Unbelievable! Even their leader is a child!" Pointer her finger at the young sergeant, her friends quietly watched the heiress vent.

"Isn't ruby a child?" Pitt pointed out.

"Hey!"

"He's not wrong." Shocked ruby turned to face her introverted friend.

"Who's side are you on Blake!" Blake could only shrug at the question.

"So tell me Weiss, how should a 'good leader' behave?" Banks said using air quotes for good leader.

"They need to be responsible for starters."

Pausing he closed his flask and rested his chin on his hand. "I see. Ruby, did you finish your homework?" He gave ruby a curious look, waiting for her answer.

"Yes…" She hesitantly mumbled.

"Did you?" This time raising an eyebrow.

"….no" She said meekly, looking away from Weiss's glare.

"Very well, next."

"They need to act in a professional manner, something you clear are not doing." Throwing out the next reason she crossed her legs and arms.

"Okay. Ruby do you wanna shoot one of our weapons?"

"Yes!" Her response was instantaneous, slamming her hands on the table with eyes full of excitement. Seeing Weiss's glare, she slowly sat back down. "I mean, yes, I would like to shoot a rifle please."

Smiling he pointed to Pitt. Giving a nod back he collected his rifle, an ammo can and a pair of grenades for his launcher. Walking with ruby who ran circles around him in an uncontrollable excitement, they left for the school's range.

"Can the wo of you step outside for a second?" Pointing at Yang and Blake, they looked at each other and complied. "And take Auburn with you please." The three of them said nothing as they exited the room, leaving Banks alone with Weiss. The two of them stared at one another for several minutes before Banks spoke again. "You're not wrong, those two traits do play a role for picking a decent squad leader."

"But." Wiess asked, still sitting with a scowl.

"But those don't necessarily mean to much in a firefight. You can be well mannered, responsible, smart and even experienced. But that won't mean much if your subordinates don't trust you. My friends trust me with their lives, and the feeling is mutually. I trust them with mine. I bet if you asked Ruby, she would tell you she felt the same way." His playfully tone disappeared, replaced with the serious one that she saw the day of their mock fight. "Now that doesn't mean I expect them to blindly follow orders, I expect the opposite. If they see a flaw or have a better idea, I'll listen and take it into consideration. But the six of us have fought together for years and the bond we share is what makes us so effective."

Wiess sat quietly, processing his explanation. After a moment she spoke. "That doesn't excuse their behavior."

"no, it really doesn't." He chuckled. "But I enjoy seeing them relax and unwind. It's a nice change of pace."

"What do you mean by that?" Her curiosity peeked at his ambiguous statement. Before he could reply the door slammed open. Glynda stormed in with sledge and frost he suspended midair by the blonde assistant.

"Professor Ozpin asked that I not interfere with you or your team's activities." Dropped them with a solid thud. " _But I advise that you keep better control of them_." Stressing the last part, she stormed out and the two began brawling on the floor.

"And that's it for today Wiess, someday I'll tell you more about us but that day is not today." He stood up and stretch his back, his muscles starting to stiffen from his workout. "Enjoy the rest of your day. And can you tell the girls to bring Auburn back, just have them set her next to those two. I'm sure she would like the show."

Standing up she gave Banks a light bow and left, pausing at the two rolling on the floor she shook her head.


	13. Chapter 12

**(A/N): Welp, here's another chapter. I ended up writing this chapter before I left but now I can actually use it. I honestly think this is prolyl the best chapter I've written and will prolly be the only good chapter. I find it funny that after four months I still have low confidence with my writing. But anyways I'm trying to add chapters' in-between plot points and filler is hard for me to think up, and conversations with more than 4 people, that gives me a headache.**

 **Time to get sloshed at the club, later.**

Chapter 12 Pitts enrollment

"So Mr. Pitt." Ozpin started his interview. "Tell me about yourself."

Pitt sat at attention, his leg rapidly bounced up and down as he thought of something worthwhile to say. The gears above him slowly clicked and clunked until he finally spoke.

"Um... well, there's not much to tell. I grew up on a farm that my father owned, that's really all I can say."

"Is that so?" A kind smile formed during this pause. "Why don't you tell me about your farm and your family then."

"Well, it was a really big farm, like enough to feed a city kind of big. My family always had the land and when my father retired from service he quickly expanded it."

"So your father was a solider? Making it to retirement must've been a rare occurrence correct? You must've been quite proud of him." Ozpin commented. Doing his best to keep the conversation going since Pitt was too nervous to speak.

"Uh yeah, my father was lucky to make it to retirement. After serving 24 years you have the option to get out. He chose to get out since he believed he wasn't physically fit to fight but felt it was his duty to help the war effort in any way he could. So he opened a farm to feed the troops." Pitt stated proudly, his confidence started to show as he spoke highly of his father.

"So he must have been proud when you went to fight?"

Pitt's eyes fell to the floor, his hands started to fidget. "My father actually pulled favors to ensure I didn't have to go…" he whispered.

"Excuse me?"

"I said he pulled many favors with his officer friends to ensure I wouldn't have to go fight." His fist clenched, releasing a drawn out sigh before he continued. "He didn't want me to fight. He felt that after serving his 24 years and with amount of food we were providing I didn't have to go. He wanted me to help keep the farm going."

"But that's not what you wanted."

"No… I would've lost all my friends, if anyone found out why I wasn't fighting id be seen as coward. So I went anyways and enlisted before I could finish school." Leaning forwards Pitt ran his hand through his high and tight several times before sitting up straight. "I know he meant well but I didn't want to spend my life running a farm, I wanted to something meaningful and It seems I might get to that twice now." Looking up he smiled and chuckled, staring at the slow spinning gears. "I wish he could see me now. I wonder if he would be proud of what I've become, ya know?"

"I take it your enlistment didn't sit to well with him?"

"No, it didn't. It wasn't a pleasant conversation, I said some things I shouldn't have said. He said things he shouldn't have said and we both broke a lot of furniture and in the same night I left." His hand covered his eyes, tears started rolling down the sides of his face. "He hardest part was when I left I could hear my sisters crying upstairs, I was so angry I forgot to say good bye to them."

"I'm sorry to hear…." Pitt quickly cut him off. His body snapping forward in his seat.

"Don't be." Wiping his face, looking at the grey haired man in front of him. His eyes were red and swollen. "I eventually got to say goodbye to them, just not in the way I would've liked but I at least said good bye to them. Can we please stop talking about them, it's something I'd rather not talk about."

"Of course Mr. Pitt, how about your transfer to Mr. Banks' unit? The file he gave me says that you hadn't completed basic training and yet he selected you, to be on his team of very experienced soldiers" Ozpin handed the young man a scroll with his file open. The current page displayed a short list of battles he had been in with his first battle open, _**'Rolling Hills'**_ his home planet.

"To be honestly, even I'm not sure why he picked me. I just did my job and assisted with evacuating civilians." He said humbly.

"Not according to the after action report." Opening he report on his monitor, Ozpin began to read aloud. "It says _**'During the Evacuation of the agricultural world "**_ _ **Rolling Hills**_ _ **" Recruit Pitt took charge of recruit training platoon 3234 Kilo Company after his Combat Instructor, SSgt Gustavo Delarosa, died during the initial attack. While in command of 73 other recruits Pitt ordered his company to garrison several buildings, impeding the enemies assault and allowing time for a reacting force to land at the airfield on the south side of the training depot. During the evacuation operation Recruit Adrian Pitt again demonstrated leadership, bravery and tactical knowledge when he and several other recruits used a shipping crane to create a blockade to delay and route the enemy, giving ample time for the evacuation of the local populace.'**_

Looking away from the scroll he locked eyes with the young man who sat silently as he kept reading. _**'In addition to Recruit Pitt's pivotal role in the defense and evacuation, Recruit Pitt lead multiple resupply and rescue missions to assist other companies and squads in the area, including leading a squad to open a path for General Thiess to evacuate the besieged headquarters building.'**_

Pitt didn't say anything and continued fidgeting with his hands. Minutes slowly ticked by, the two of them sitting silently as Ozpin waited for a response.

"If not me, then who?" He muttered, quietly quoting his instructor. "No one else knew what to do or no one wanted to take charge. If I didn't step up, then no one would've and we all would've died." Pitt whispered louder this time. "I only did what I thought was the right thing to do, I didn't know what I was doing during the whole time. I just did what I thought made sense and hoped we would make it out alive."

"If I may give my opinion, I believe he selected you because he saw exceptional leadership come from such a young man. One who wouldn't flee from strife." He said with a smile. "A rare quality that I always look for when I select who leads any of my student's teams. That is why I believe he picked you to join his team." Closing the scroll Ozpin placed it on his desk as he passed it to gaze out the window. The skyline stood in the distance, lights shining like the stars above. "How old are you Mr. Pitt?" he suddenly asked.

"What?" Pitt blurted out, shocked at the sudden shift of the conversation.

"How old are you?" He repeated.

"Err… I just turned 17 about a month ago, if that even means anything here." Puzzled by the odd question he started to scratch the back of his head.

"Is that so? Well, Mr. Banks informed me of your lack of proper education… I believe he said you dropped out earlier than most in your world. Is that correct?"

"Yes?"

"Very well, I will see that you are enrolled into the appropriate classes. Just as Mr. Banks had suggested." Smiling he quickly tapped on his desk monitor. Before Pitt could object the scroll in his pocket made a quiet *ding* and a class schedule opened on the screen.

Student: Adrian Pitt, first year

History 0900-1030

Grimm studies 1045-1215

Combat class 1330-1500

Basic dust chemistry 1515-1645

"Wait, what?!" He shouted in confusion. "I thought I was a security guard, not a student! What would the other students think if they saw me in the class room as a student?!"

"Don't worry you will still be able to continue your duties as a security officer, that is only half of a normal student's class schedule. And I'm sure Mr. Banks will make the necessary adjustments to accommodate your education." Ozpin chuckled. "Mr. Banks did at one point say that you appear to fit in with the students."

"Wouldn't that raise questions? I mean, everyone knows I'm a security guard and now I suddenly start showing up to class... even the teachers would ask questions!" Pitt pointed out.

"Do not worry Mr. Pitt, I've already informed my staff of your current "situation" and filed the necessary paperwork. As for the students, I'm sure you will think of an appropriate excuse." He gestured towards the door while seated. "Your first class is tomorrow morning, your schedule will have all the times and a list of supplies you will need. Have a wonderful evening Mr. Pitt."

"But I…"

"Have a wonderful evening Mr. Pitt."

"…. Yes sir." Pitt sighed in defeat. Walking to the door he stopped, turning around to bid he headmaster farewell and walked out the door. "The fuck do I wear tomorrow?"


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

(A/N): Here's another chapter.

"Okay…." Pitt muttered to himself, sitting alone in the back of the empty classroom. Just like his drill instructors had told him during training, well beat into him, 15 minutes early is still 15 minutes late. He stood at the door before Professor Port had arrived, prompting a surprised look and an ecstatic greeting from the veteran huntsman. "Beowolves are the things we fought when we got here, Ursa look like big ass bears, and deathstalkers are basically giant scorpions." He tried to visualize facing one alone, the fight quickly ended with him on the ground dead. He sighed, his lack of confidence weighing his head down. "Say, professor, have you ever taken down a deathstalker alone?"

"Of course young man!" the stout hunter dropped his stack of books on the corner of his desk. "I've defeated many during my youth." He began pacing back and forth, retelling a vivid tale from his time as a hunter. The story had gone on longer than expected and students started to trickle in slowly as class began. "And with my cunning knowledge I lured the beast into my trap! It followed me into the rocky pass, where I used my weapon to collapse the surrounding walls, crushing it under the rubble. And that my friend is how I saved that little village." He held his hand to his waist and let out a jovial banter. Pitt stared, wide eyed in amazement at the man, while the other students had already nodded off.

"That's amazing."

"Yes well, I'm sure that in time you to will be able to accomplish such feats." He twiddled his moustache and picked his books back up. "You will hear plenty more tales from my class."

Looking back at his book, he reread all the highlight portions. Methods of attack, weapons, armor locations, everything he could think of that would help if he ever had to fight one alone. The bell chimed with the last of the students taking their seats. The chattering students hushed once professor Port took the spotlight at the front of the class.

"Hey Mr. Pitt." Looking away from his book Ruby sat beside him, the rest of her team sat in order of their team name. "Why are you here?" she asked, lifting and eyebrow and opening her book.

"Yes, why are you here?" Wiess stared analytically at him. Wondering the same.

"Sgt. Banks and Ozpin made me attend classes." He answered honestly, after all it was the truth.

"Aren't you a little old to be here?"

"Don't be like that Wiess." Ruby playfully shot back.

"It's a legitimate question."

"I turned 17 a few months ago, were actually not that old you know." Pitt stated, he began listing off everyone's ages. "Wade and Sledge are 19, Frost is 24, Sgt. Banks and Sgt. Ortiz are both about 25ish I think. Never really asked them." Holding his chin, he thought hard about Auburns age. "And I never got an answer for Auburn, she just says 'old enough' whenever I ask. So I think I fit the age group to attend."

"Isn't the minimum age requirement to join any form of armed service 18?" Yang asked, leaning over the table to join the group.

Pitt stuttered, trying to think of an excuse or deflect the topic. "Well, you see when I…."

"Having a pleasant conversation back there?" Professor Port cut in, saving him from the interrogation.

"Sorry sir. It won't happen again." Apologizing, Port resumed his lecture.

"As I was saying, a proper huntsman must be lethal, intelligent, and observant. So tell me Mr. Pitt, what can you tell me about a common grim. A boarbatusk." He pointed at the diagram above him, a stretched out picture with faint scribbles pointing at each part.

Thinking to his note he listed off several key points. "Well for starters, the armor plating is mostly located along the spine to reinforce it during its primary form of attack. It also has supplementary armor in its frontal region for obvious reasons." Port gave a satisfied nod and Pitt continued. "During its rolling attack, it travels for the most part, in a linear path and has difficulty turning without opening up to change direction."

Port clapped his hands with a satisfied look under his bushy brow. "An excellent explanation Mr. Pitt."

"Thank you sir.

"Now, after observing your prey and finding it weakness, one must take advantage of it. Care to demonstrate Mr. Pitt?"

"You mean here?" shocked, his head tilted slightly. "Like, right now, in the classroom?"

"Of course! I have several specimens ready for practical demonstrations." He pointed to a heavily locked door at the end of the classroom. Listening closer he heard the muffled growls from within

"Um…. Sure, I guess." Excusing himself to get ready, he returned 10 minutes later to the front of the class in his combat gear. While the professor wheeled a cage the room Pitt double checked his suits systems. "HUD is active, shields at 100%, ammo ready to go…. Buckshot…." He loaded a buckshot cartridge into the under barrel launcher, closing it with a reassuring snap. "Loaded."

"Are you ready Mr. Pitt?"

"Ready as ill every be sir." He gave Port a nod and the lock was cut. The boarbatusk leapt out, snarling as it scanned the room. Locking eyes on the lone figure it let out a high pitched shrill and curled up. it sped towards his faster than he expected but he let out a relaxed breath and wait for it to get closer. At 10 meters he flicked the safety to fire. At 5 meters he shifted his hand to the launcher's trigger, at 1 meter he rolled to the side and fired the buckshot right as it passed. The creature was sent flying into the chalkboard, squealing in pain. It attempted to lift itself but failed, it's exposed limbs ripped apart by the swarm of ball bearings.

 _ ***BANG* *BANG***_

Pitt fired a pair of shots at the wound creature, putting it out of its misery. He let out a sigh of relief, watching it slowly dissipate. Several students cheered from the class, most sat unimpressed while Ruby and Yang cheered louder from the back.

"Well executed young man." Port congratulated him, slapping his shoulder several times. "Without a doubt we'll make a huntsman out of you by the time you leave here."

Pitt nodded and returned to his seat. Ruby started acting out how he killed the grimm with her own twist. Pitt smiled at the attention until she calmed down. Looking out the window he saw the platoon from the hanger doing something around a wall in the courtyard. Some were jump up the wall, others making a human pyramid as they tried in vain to reach something. Thinking back, he remembered that Sgt. Ortiz had them for the day.

"I wonder what they're up to." He sighed with bored, returning to his notes.

(line break)

"It's only been ten miles, and they're still falling out." Ortiz muttered to herself. Behind her the platoon stretched around a hundred yards behind her. Tired of seeing their weak display she stopped abruptly at the base of a support column at the entrance of the school. The formation stumble to her, all trying their best to remain on her feet. Rolling her eyes, she removed her boot knife from its sheath. Twirling it in her palm she turned to face the column. The platoon watched the display, their eyes following the knife as it flew through the air. The knife stuck firmly in the column 20 meters from the base. Looking at the platoon, she crossed her arms and explained the task.

"I expect a knife in my hands within the hour, otherwise you will be training with Sergeant Banks for the rest of the week." Taking a seat, she watched he chaos unfold. With renewed energy, they franticly made attempts for the knife. Forming a human pyramid at first, only for the base to collapse under the weight. Next, they began throwing their running shoes that the knife, missing every throw. Ortiz let out a small chuckle when one of the shoes managed to hit the knife. Their faces were priceless when it got snagged one it, leaving the shoe to dangle above. Time went by and they group exhausted all ideas, she was about to end her game but stopped when she saw one of them standing off to the side. Staring at the knife she left the group, heading for the hanger. Moments later she returned with a knife in hand.

"M-mission accomplished… sergeant." The girl stuttered. Towering over her Ortiz took the knife, impressed by her idea.

"Name." Ortiz asked bluntly, sliding the knife home.

"FL-Flores, Pvt. Flores ma'am."

"You passed, go home." Pointed at the hanger she sent her away. Looking back at the rest she relished their faces. Full of disbelief at what just happened. She took off with a brisk jog, leaving the rest to follow as they groaned and complained.


End file.
